The 20 man game
by laxusXlucyfan
Summary: In the past 2 months, 2 members of each guild have gone missing. Amongst these missing mages, are Fairy Tails own Laxus Dreyar, and Lucy Heartfillia. Little does everyone one know, these 20 mages either win this game, or lose it with their lives.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay everyone, this is my second story EVER on Fanfiction. I'm really excited. I suppose anyone would be excited once you start writing a new story. I know at the moment I am writing "Old friends, and Jealous Dragon Slayers" but I also wish to put out this story since I am a large fan of LaxusXLucy, or LaLu if you will. ^_^ I hope all you people out there enjoy this story. Please, try to go easy on me. This is the first LaLu story I've ever written or attempted to write. **

Two months, it had been two months since their disappearance. The whole guild was a mess with worry about their two missing mages. The Master was amongst them, constantly questioning the council if there had been any info on the missing mage, but there was none.

Lucy Heartfillia and Laxus Dreyar had gone missing over two months ago, along with several other mages from other guilds.

The only clues to both of them was Lucy's whip, and Laxus's large black coat which had a furry collar. Both of these were found laying on the top floor of Fairy Tail. After that no one had seen either mages since.

The council and guild were dumbfounded at this sudden event. At least two mages from every guild had gone missing over two months ago, just like Lucy and Laxus.

Their reason for disappearing or their location was unknown to all. Though the searches for these missing mages continued, the chances of finding them all began to get more slim as the days passed.

Team Natsu were one of the many teams from the guilds who had gone to search for the missing mages. None of Team Natsu's members knew where their beloved celestial mage Lucy could possible have gone. Even Natsu's nose, which could find someone miles away, could not locate even the smallest wiff of Lucy's scent.

Natsu ran up the steep cliff, sniffing widely, hoping desperately to catch any familiar wiff of Lucy. There was none.

"Natsu, did you get anything?" Erza called, running up after Natsu, Gray and Happy behind her.

"No…. Nothing." Natsu said softly, gritting his teeth.

"Where could she have gone?" Erza whispered softly, staring out towards the many valleys and mountains ahead of them.

"She couldn't have just disappeared like she did. I mean… for all those mages to just vanish like that, it's not normal." Gray added, staring at his feet.

"Aye." Happy nodded in agreement.

Natsu narrowed his eyes, thinking back to the night he had last seen Lucy.

_"__Lucy!" Natsu grinned, running over the bridge going over the Magnolia River. Lucy who had her back turned to Natsu, looked over her shoulder with a large smile. Her blond hair neatly falling over her shoulders, cascading down her back. Her warm and kind brown eyes blinked at Natsu as he approached. _

_"Hey Natsu." she smiled once more as he came to a stop right in front of her. _

_Natsu grinned. "Lucy, lets go on a mission tomorrow. Just Happy, you, and me." _

_Lucy blinked. "Just the three of us?" She questioned. _

_"Just like old times!" Natsu nodded._

_Lucy thought over the idea carefully before quickly nodding. "Yeah, it will be fun." she grinned. _

_"All right!" Natsu pumped his fist in the air, before blinking. "Hey Lucy, where are you going, isn't your house that way?" Natsu asked, pointing over his shoulder. _

_"Yeah, but I forgot my whip at Fairy Tail. I'd thought I should go back and grab it before I head back home." Lucy explained. _

_Natsu nodded. "Want me to come with ya?" he smiled. _

_"Nah it's okay. It will only take a few seconds anyway." Lucy said turning to walk towards Fairy Tail once more. _

_"Okay, see ya tomorrow!" Natsu called, waving good bye to her before he went speeding back towards his own house. He would visit Lucy later after he saw what Happy was up to. _

_He never saw her later though. She had never come home. Natsu was sure she would be back eventually and had fallen asleep on her bed, patiently waiting for her to come home and yell "What are you doing in my house, trespasser!". _

_Morning came though, and Natsu had a peaceful and undisturbed nap. Something that truly worried him. Lucy wasn't on the couch, or next to him in her bed. She wasn't in the apartment at all, and hadn't been there all night. _

_Natsu had scrambled out of the apartment and straight to Fairy Tail, hoping that Lucy was just so tired she fell asleep there. _

_Natsu burst threw the large Fairy Tail doors, a wild and panicked look on his face. _

_"Oh, Natsu." Macao blinked a little shocked by Natsu's sudden entrance. _

_"Where's Lucy!" He yelled at the guild, getting all of their attention. _

_"Lucy?" Gray asked, getting up from his seat. _

_"Yeah, she said she was coming back here last night to get her whip, but she never came back to her house yesterday!" Natsu yelled. _

_"Natsu, calm down. I'm sure she is fine." Makarov said, jumping up from his spot to walk up to the young Dragon Slayer. _

_Natsu was about to yell more but paused. He quickly smelled the air, smelling something fowl and unfamiliar. _

_"Natsu?" Erza questioned at Natsu's look. _

_"Something smells. Bad." Natsu said slowly, his eyes narrowing. "It's a bad smell." _

_The guild looked at Natsu confused. "Bad smell?' Levy questioned, still a little worried about Lucy. _

_Natsu nodded, but quickly went back to the subject at hand. "Anyway, has anyone seen Lucy?"_

_The guild members exchanged glanced. "No." they answered. _

_"The last time I saw her was yesterday." Mira said softly. "Maybe Laxus saw her though. After everyone had left, he was still here. I asked him to close up the guild once he left." Mira announced. _

_Natsu's attention instantly turned towards the second floor of Fairy Tail, where Laxus usually was. "Hey, Laxus!" Natsu called. _

_There was no reply. _

_"Maybe he isn't here yet." Droy shrugged. _

_Natsu growled, marching towards the stairs. _

_"Where are you going flame brain?" Gray questioned. _

_"Up to where Laxus is." Natsu answered. The Master's suddenly large hand stopped him. _

_"The second level is only for S-class mages Natsu." The master reminded him. _

_Natsu sighed. "Erza." he whined. _

_"I'll take a look." the scarlet haired mage said solemnly before marching up the stairs disappearing into the second floor. _

_After a short pause, Erza slowly reappeared down the stairs. "Natsu." she said, her hands shacking. _

_"Huh?" Natsu asked. _

_"You said she came back looking for her whip, right?" Erza said slowly. _

_Natsu gulped, suddenly growing nervous and a bit scared. "Yeah."_

_Erza lifted up her hand for all to see. Lucy's whip was firmly in her grasp. The Fairy Tail mages gasped a bit at the sight of it. _

_"Thats Lu-chans!" Levy gasped. _

_Gray gritted his teeth. "If that is still here then…"_

"That must mean something happened to her." Cana finished, her hands shacking.

"That's not the only thing." Erza said, lifting up her other hand to reveal Laxus's jacket that he wore almost every day.

"Thats Laxus'." Freed gasped.

"He doesn't go anywhere without it." Bicklow added.

Master slowly approached Erza, taking the jacket out of her hands. His eyes widened for the first time showing fear. "There is blood…" he said softly, removing his hand to show a red substance covering the tips of his fingers.

Fairy Tail let out numerous gasps, staring at the jacket in horror.

"Laxus was hurt!" Evergreen shrieked, staring at the numerous holes and blood stains on Laxus' jacket.

"B-But, the guild was perfectly intact when we got here this morning." Mira stuttered, looking towards Elfman, who nodded.

"That doesn't change anything. Something wrong is going on here." Macao said slowly, staring at the ground.

"Find them!" Master ordered, snapping everyone out of their thoughts. "Find Laxus and Lucy, and bring them home!" Master proclaimed.

With out missing a beat everyone nodded, rushing out the guild doors.

"Erza." Makarov said, stopping the scarlet haired girl in her tracks. "Please look up on the second floor a bit more. See if you can find any more clues to where those two are." Master ordered, almost pleaded.

Erza nodded. "Yes Master." she said, running towards the stairs.

"Natsu, use your nose. We're going to need it." Master said, turning towards the young Dragon Slayer.

Natsu narrowed his eyes, nodding. "Lets go Happy!" Natsu called to his blue companion.

"Aye!" Happy yelled, flying after them.

They ever found Lucy or Laxus though. They had completely disappeared.

"If only… If only I had gone with her that night. None of this would have happened." Natsu thought angrily.

"Lucy… where are you?"

The sound of running could be heard as rain fell hard over the bearers heads.

"Keep moving!" One ordered, as 20 different figures desperately ran through a seemingly never ending forest. Many different types of animals, beasts, and demon looking creatures chasing wildly behind them.

One blond in particular of the 20 forms stumbled forward, tripping over a rock.

"Kya!" she gasped, plummeting towards the ground. Just before the impact though, two pairs of arms wrapped around hers, dragging her forward. The girl stumbled to keep up with her two saviors.

"Laxus, Hibiki!" The girl gasped thankfully.

"Don't fall behind." Laxus said coldly, rain trickling down his face as he let go of the blond girl.

"Yes Ms, don't want to lose you to those nasty beasts." Hibiki said with a small smile, making sure she was ready to run on her own before letting go.

"Thank you." The girl nodded. The girl clutched her left arm, which was still sticky with a warm trail of fresh blood. The rain already washing the blood away.

This girl was Lucy Heartfillia, and she was one of the 20 victims brought into this sick little game.

A game they had to win to together, and work together to escape from.

Or they would all perish.

**Hope you all liked it. ^_^**


	2. Please read! Request!

**This isn't really an Update chapter, but I need to ask everyone and important favor/request. **

**PLEASE READ THIS! I need a bit of help!**

Okay, so as it said in chapter 1, two mages from each guild were taken.

Fairy Tail: Laxus and Lucy

Blue Pegasus: Hibiki, and Ren

There at least 20 people in the "game". 4 are all ready listed (Right above)

Now I need people for the other guilds. I could use some that are allready named like Sting from Sabertooth, but I'm not sure if he is even apart of that guild during this time. SO!

I ask, no, I beg, that you viewers please give me some character ideas!

I need people from... (2 characters for each guild please!)

Sabertooth:

Twilight Ogre

Lamia Scale

Quatro Cerberus

Mermaid Heel (An all female guild by the way)

Raven Tail (Yes I am including this guild)

Phantom Lord (hasn't been dissolved yet when this story takes place)

Southern wolves

These are all the guilds. I please ask that if you do infact send me a character idea in your review that you please only make one character for now!

I also ask that when you give me your characters description you add all of the following.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Personality:**

**Magic type: (Also if you could mention what type of wizard they are: If their S-class or not)  
><strong>

**Any relationships the character might have: (Couple or family wise)**

**Descriptions on the characters appearance: **Hair color, eye color, wight, height, body tone, stuff like that.

**Also, How they would react in a situation like this**

I would be extremely grateful to you all if you helped me! Thank you for your time! ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

A bleak and incomprehensive nightmare were the words Lucy used to describe the events that unfolded since entering Fairy Tail to secure her forgotten whip. In all truth, Lucy couldn't truly decide what was real or fiction anymore.

It happened so fast, that her memories of the night had blurred together. She knew though, that what happened was real. No matter how much she wished it wasn't true, everything that was going on was real.

'His' attack was something Lucy could have never expected. Though it took time, Laxus had eventually agreed with her.

At the moment, all she could do was remember. Remember a time when life was simple and filled with a joy that was subtle, but was always there. Her days at the guild with everyone were the one thing that she felt kept her going.

That wasn't true though, she had friends that kept her moving even now. Even after being taken away from Fairy Tail to participate in the twisted 'game', she still had a team that she could depend on.

Fore she wasn't the only one who had been taken. Though she had been one of the first, along with Laxus, to come to this strange world.

Lucy lifted her head, staring out of the entrance of the cave, where she was currently standing watch. Vaguely hearing the voices of her nineteen other companions behind her, who at the moment were bandaging their wounds.

Another days battle had gone by, each day seemingly getting worst. For the time being they had made their base in a cave not too far from the river that cut a straight path through the forest that surrounded them.

The cave at this moment was the closet thing to a home that the group could ask for. With its many passages and chambers, it easily fit the whole group.

They would not be able to stay though. Attacks continued on at random intervals, making it hard to heal injuries and get a decent sleep. Eventually the monsters that roamed this land would find them once more, and they would have to leave the cave and continue on their journey.

A journey in which was unclear of purpose and detail. Even if they were to win this game of "his" what absolute proof was there to show they would actually be returned to theirs guild, or even their world.

For this was not Earthland, their surroundings proved that more then anything.

It constantly rained here, the dark black clouds never revealing the sky above. Was there even a blue-sky pass those clouds? At night Lucy feared to look up at the sky. The moon shinned down through the clouds, casting a strange red light over the land. The light, similar to the color of blood, always gave Lucy a feeling of dread. The land was no exception.

Though at the first glance the forests and mountains seemed as normal as any, but once they began to venture through them, they soon realized that the paths and trees constantly moved. Hills and cliffs disappeared and appeared at random, they environment constantly changing, making it difficult to pin point where exactly they were.

Lucy's mind began to wander again, bringing back the memories of her last night seeing Fairy Tail.

_Running up to the large wooden doors towering high above her head, Lucy reached for the handles, giving the door a hard push._

_"The guild is closed!" A harsh voice bellowed from the second floor when Lucy entered the guild._  
><em>Lucy jumped a bit in surprise, expecting to have been greeted by Mirajane. "S-Sorry." She apologized back to the voice, unsure of the owner. "I just forgot something of mine, I'll be out in just a second." After no reply Lucy quickly began the search for her missing whip.<em>

_Lucy felt a bit shocked at how clean the guild was when there weren't mages running in a wild rampage. The chairs were neatly pushed into the tables, which were cleared off and polished, to perfection. Did Mirajane do this every night, even though all of this work would go down the drain the next morning when the mages bursted in through the doors in search of work and food?_

_Getting on her hands and knees, she looked underneath the tables, sighing when her search came short. "Where could it have gone?' She mumbled, looking over the side of the table to inspect the rest of the guild, still no sign of her whip. "Excuse me, have you seen a whip perchance?" Lucy called up towards the second floor._

_Now that she thought about it, only S-Class mages were supposed to be up there. Was it Gildarts? No, she would have heard if he returned. Then perhaps, it was Laxus?_

_After no reply from her call, Lucy sighed. "I guess not then."_

_"This it?" A voice chuckled as something was tossed off the side of the second floor balcony, hitting the ground in front of Lucy._  
><em>"My whip!' Lucy cheered, scrambling to pick up her only fighting weapon. If she lost her keys, this was the only thing protecting her from death. Realizing her manners she looked up towards the second floor. "Thank you." She smiled.<em>

_Lucy took a small step back as a figure appeared at the balcony, observing her with bright orange eyes. The man was around the age of 23 with spiky blond hair, which was slicked back over his head in large spikes, though some of his bangs hung over his face. Large headphones were on top of Laxus' head, which were blaring out a song Lucy could barley hear. He dressed in a silky purple shirt with a wide collar, showing of his collarbone and parts of his smooth chest. His pants were a dark blue, almost black, and were held up by a light red belt._

_In all honestly Lucy didn't really think Laxus' colors matched well, but didn't wish to anger the lightning mage by saying such a rude comment._

_What really amazed Lucy though was his distinctive lightning bold-shaped scar that covered his right eye. She had never learned how he possible got the scar, but had no right to ask._

_"You shouldn't leave your stuff lying around, little girl." Laxus said smoothly, propping his elbow up over the railing and leaning his head on his hand._

_"L-Little girl?" Lucy stammered, angered by the sudden nickname. Lucy quickly reattached her whip to her belt, avoiding Laxus' stares. It was probably best not to anger him; he was an S-Class mage after all._

_"Sorry for the trouble, I'll be leaving now." Lucy said over her shoulder softly, approaching the guild exit. Lucy frowned._

_Hadn't she left this door open when she entered? Lucy shook the thought out of her mind; she was probably just imagining things. Reaching for the door handle, Lucy pulled on the door._

_"Eh?" Lucy blinked when she found she couldn't open the door. "What the-" Lucy tried again, a little harder._

_Laxus, who had been eyeing Lucy like a hawk, frowned. "Just pull." He said, annoyed on how weak this scene was making Lucy seem._

_"It won't open!" Lucy whined, using all of her body weight to pull on the door._

_Laxus smirked, slightly amused at the younger mages failed attempts at the simple task of opening the door._

_Lucy pulled back, glaring at the door. Was it locked? Lucy looked over her shoulder at Laxus, who was smirking at her. This went against her pride, but she had to do it. "Laxus." She cooed sweetly. "Do you have the key to unlock the doors?"_

_"Che." Laxus scoffed. "Those doors aren't locked stupid blond. You probably just aren't pulling hard enough. With those skinny little arms of yours, I'm not surprised."_

_Lucy's left eyebrow twitched with anger. "I'm not that much of a weakling!" she snapped. "I was able to open the door when I first got here, but now they wont open."_

_Laxus, mildly interested in the conversation, shrugged. "What do you expect me to do?" He said coldly, turning his back on Lucy to sit down on his usual table._

_"You could be a gentleman and open the door for me." Lucy suggested, folding her arms._  
><em>"You should be less weak." Laxus shrugged, causing Lucy to flinch.<em>

_"What was with this guy and being weak?" Lucy thought angrily, trying to pull on the door once more. As Lucy began to pull with all her strength again, a cold shiver ran down her spin._

_The room fell cold, a feeling of distraught sweeping over Lucy. She released the door handle, looking around in surprise._

_What was this feeling deep in Lucy's stomach? Lucy wrapped her arms around herself subconsciously, taking a shaky step back as the lights in the room dimmed._

_Laxus rose to his feet staring around at the room, the same feeling deep in his stomach. Lucy flinched at the sound of a deep chuckle echoing through the guild._

_"Who's there?" Laxus demanded coldly, folding his arms._

_"Fairies, I've found two little fairies." The voice cackled darkly. A shadow jumped down from the top of the guild in between the two mages._

_Lucy jumped back, frantically reaching for her keys. She didn't know why, but she felt this would turn into something messy, and fast._

_"Fairies. Hahaha, Fairies." The creature laughed, liking its bottom lip in hunger. The creature looked to be like a mix of a human and demon._

_It's spiked red tail swished behind his back, while its large claws limply swung at its side. From it's waist down the creature had humans legs which were covered in tattered jeans, till it reached its feet which curved up a bit, it's toe nails just as sharp as it's claws._

_It's torso, which had no clothing to cover its self, was smooth and a rich color of white with a pink tinge, showing off a healthy 4 pack._

_It's face was that of a normal humans, except when it cam to it's mouth. With such large and gruesome fangs it forced the creatures mouth to widen, showing off the tips of its sharp pearly whites._

_Blood red eyes scanned the guild, looking towards Lucy and Laxus with hunger, its short black hair brushing over his eyes._

_"Fairies." It chuckled again, stepping forward._

_"So it wants a fight, huh?" Laxus chuckled in amusement, jumping down from the second floor to meet the beast._

_"Who is this guy?" Lucy whispered, her hands shacking. Why did she feel such fear?_

_"Doesn't matter." Laxus interrupted her, stepping forward._

_The beast turned towards Laxus, a gruesome smile pulling at its lips. "Lightning Fairies wishes to die first? Kill, kill. Blood will spill." With that, the beast lunged forward, preparing to claw Laxus' face of with its nails._

_Laxus side-stepped to the left, letting the creature pass him. "Yeah, blood will spill. Yours!" Laxus laughed, grabbing the back of the creature's head to slam it into the ground._

_Lucy flinched at the sound of cracking bone._

_With its head still in the ground, its tail whirled around, smacking Laxus in the shoulder; it's spikes digging into his flesh._

_Laxus flinched, jumping away to land on top of one of the tables. As the creature rose from his feet, Laxus examined his jacket, scowling at the holes the spikes had made._

_"Why you- this was my favorite jacket." He hissed in annoyance._

_The creature jumped forward, charging towards Laxus wildly._  
><em>"Gate of The Golden Bull, Taurus!"<em>

_The creature howled in pain as Taurus appeared it is side, instantly hitting the creature into the wall using his Axe as a baseball bat._

_"What the-" Laxus muttered, staring at the large Bull in confusion. "When did this thing get here?"_  
><em>"Taurus isn't a thing, he's my friend!" Lucy pointed out angrily, stepping out from behind her spirit.<em>

_Laxus blinked. "A celestial spirit huh, is he strong?"_  
><em>Taurus folded his arms, steam coming from his nose as he exhaled.<em>

_"Of course. He's one of the strongest celestial spirits." Lucy smiled up at Taurus as hearts appeared at the sight of her._

_"Oh Lucy! I'll always protect your wonderful body!" Taurus cooed._

_"And… the most perverted." Lucy sighed a bit, stepping away from the love sick Bull._

_The three paused from their conversation when the beast rose from its feet, its back turned from them. "Angry… Fairies are annoying… angry!" the beast yelled in fury, whirling around._

_Lucy gasped when the beast disappeared, reappearing behind Taurus._

_"Taurus!" she gasped when the creature used its tail to smack Taurus to the ground, making the bull fall unconscious and disappear._  
><em>"Its fast." Laxus muttered when it charged towards him next.<em>

_"Fairy!" the beast snarled, slashing at Laxus, who used his lightning to dodge the attack and reappear behind the monster. The monster saw the attack and used its hand to catch Laxus' fist._  
><em>"Crap." Laxus hissed, trying to pull his hand away.<em>

_"Fairy, die!" The monster yelled, throwing Laxus over its shoulder to slash him across the back, sending him flying into the second floor._

_Laxus let out a pain filled cry as his hit the ground, blood begin to appear from his wound. "Why you-" he hissed ripping off his jacket, which was slowing him down. Chucking the piece of fabric to the floor, Laxus rose to his feet._  
><em>"Laxus, are you okay?" Lucy gasped. She screamed when the creature appeared on a two feet in front of her. Lucy reached for her belt, desperately trying to grab one of her keys.<em>

_The monster beat her to it though, its tail curling around her waist, digging into her flesh._

_Lucy let out a scream of pain, kicking at the beast's face. The beast, looking more annoyed then hurt, scowled. With a flick of its tail it threw Lucy towards Laxus, causing her to land on top of him._  
><em>"Watch where you're landing." He snapped coldly.<em>  
><em>"It couldn't be help." Lucy argued, rolling off of the older lightning mage.<em>  
><em>"Just stay out of my way." Laxus muttered.<em>  
><em>"Like I have a choice. It's attacking me too you know." Lucy hissed, as the beast jumped up to the second floor, landing on the railing.<em>

_"Here it comes." Lucy announced._  
><em>"Way to state the obvious." Laxus scowled, lightning appearing in his hand. When the creature charged Laxus slammed his hand into the ground, his attack speeding towards the beast at amazing speed.<em>

_"What?" Laxus gasped when it easily dodged._

_"Watch out!" Lucy yelled as the creature reached out, grabbing Laxus' face and slamming his back into the ground._  
><em>"Gyah!" Laxus yelled in pain as the creature's hand turned a dark purple, causing Laxus unknown pain.<em>

_"Laxus!" Lucy gasped, reaching for her whip. Unfolding it, she narrowed her eyes. "Don't touch him!" she yelled, flicking her whip so hard that it caused it to fall out of her hand, sending most of it at the creature._

_The creature howled as it impacted with its face, making it release Laxus, who fell limply. Lucy ran to Laxus' side, staring down at him in worry._

_What had that thing done to him? "Laxus? Laxus!" she gasped, shacking the older males shoulders. The man made no reply, and only held his face in pain._

_"Fairy." The beast growled angrily, lunging towards Lucy._

_Lucy yelped, throwing her hands up to cover her face by instinct. Closing her eyes, Lucy waited for the impact._

_It never came though._

_Lucy removed her arms from her face and gasped at the sight of Laxus in front of her, his body blocking the attack._

_"Laxus!" Lucy screamed in horror when she saw the creature biting down into Laxus' arm, tearing flesh. Blood dripped down the creature's jaw, its dark red eyes glaring at Laxus._

_"Get your self another snack." Laxus hissed darkly, using the last bits of his magic to punch the creature straight in the jaw, its body igniting with lightning. The creature screamed in pain, pulling away to dive over the railing and land on the floor below._

_When the monster released him, Laxus grabbed his arm, wincing at the feeling of fresh blood leaking out from his wounds._

_"Laxus, w-why… why did you do that?" Lucy stuttered, crawling out from behind Laxus' back to grab his' arm and examine it._

_Laxus frowned, as if not knowing the answer to that question himself. "Don't touch it." He muttered, pulling his arm away._

_"Your hurt." Lucy insisted, reaching out for his arm once more._

_"It's fine." Laxus snapped stubbornly._

_Lucy's cheeks puffed out in anger. "It is not, now let me see it." Lucy said._

_Laxus and Lucy glared at each other, but froze as the creature once again crawled up to the second floor using the stairs, its body steaming from the electricity Laxus had used on it._

_"Crap, that thing just wont go down." Laxus grunted, trying to get to his feet._

_Lucy, seeing Laxus' struggled, helped him up. "Laxus, you need help." Lucy whispered._

_"Do not. I'm not letting this 'thing' beat me." Laxus croaked, pulling away from Lucy's grip._

_"B-But…" Lucy protested. Lucy gasped when Laxus fell to his knees, clutching the hem of his shirt, which had begun to turn a dark shade of violet from the blood._

_"Fairy Blood." The creature murmured, stumbling towards them._

_"Get out of here." Laxus ordered under his breath._  
><em>"W-What?" Lucy stammered.<em>

_"You hear me, run. He's no match for you." Laxus snapped, shoving Lucy away from him._  
><em>Lucy stared at Laxus in surprise.<em>  
><em>"I'll handle him somehow, so just get out of here-"<em>

_"No!" Lucy protested, making Laxus flinch in surprise. "I'm not leaving you here to die. I refuse. So what if I'm no match, I can still try to protect you. You're a member of Fairy Tail, right? So that means you're my Nakama!"_

_Laxus stared at Lucy in shock. Nakama? He just met the girl yet she all ready thought of him like that?_

_"I-Idiot." He stuttered, still dumbfounded._

_Lucy turned to the beast, glaring at it. The beast's attention turned to her as well, examining her. Without a word, the beast barreled toward her._

_Lucy flinched, pulling out her keys. "G-Gate the-" Lucy screamed when the creature grabbed her hands, slamming her into the ground, preventing her from summoning any more spirits._

_Laxus whirled around, surprised how fast the monster moved._

_Lucy began to scream as the creature bit down into her shoulder, just below the color-bone._

_Laxus flinched, trying to get to his feet. He barley even knew this girl, her name was Lucy if he recalled. Yet he was already watching some monster kill her._

_The word 'death' echoed through his mind. He hated the sound of it. He wasn't going to let it happen, not on his watch. Even if this girl seemed weak, she was still willing to stay. Why?_

_Laxus didn't have time to figure out the answer and stumbled forward. "Hey, freak!" he called._

_The monster paused on his meal of Lucy's blood to look up at Laxus, just in time to see foot before it slammed into his neck._

_The creature gagged, rolling away to hold its neck. As the beast rolled around scratching at its throat, Laxus kneeled next to Lucy, lifting her up._

_Lucy whimpered a bit, clutching her bleeding shoulder._

_"Moron. What the hell was that? I told you didn't I? You're no match for him." Laxus muttered, yet his voice was soft. For some odd reason, he felt guilty for letting this happen to the younger mage._

_Lucy gave him a weak smile. "I-I know."_

_Laxus blinked in surprise. "Stop talking." He ordered sharply, not wanting to hear her soft and caring tone anymore._

_Lucy chuckled a bit, nodding. She looked towards the beast, her eyes widening. "It's coming… again." She whispered. Laxus growled, as the beast lunged at them for the 7th time that day._

_Knowing he couldn't dodge, Laxus brought Lucy close, shielding her from the attack._  
><em>"Laxus! No don't!" Lucy gasped, trying to move so that she would take the attack instead of Laxus.<em>

_The two fell silent when the monster let out a howl of pain. Whirling around, the two blinked at the sight of a large chain wrapping around the beast neck, pulling it back, and stopping the attack._

_The creature rolled on the ground, pulling at the chain in protest._  
><em>"We were…." Laxus frowned<em>

_"Saved?" Lucy questioned._

_"Whoa! What's with all this?" a voice laughed. Laxus narrowed his eyes a boy appeared next to the beast, holding the other end of the chain._  
><em>"A child?" Lucy whispered.<em>

_The boy looked to be around the age of 10. He had short black hair that was smoothed back with gel. His eyes were a bright white, staring at Lucy and Laxus, as if he were silently mocking them. He was 4'9 and looked as skinny as a twin, no muscle in sight. Oddly enough he had a bright blue tux on, and was straightening his tie._

_"Oh." He blinked. "I must apologize for my pets rude behavior." The boy chuckled, reaching down to pet the beast, which was currently knawing on the chains, wanting freedom. "He's a bit of an animal though. Hard to control him sometimes."_

_"Who are you?" Laxus demanded, getting straight to the point._  
><em>"Me? Why what a strange question to ask." The boy smiled wickedly.<em>

_Laxus scowled "How do you figure?"_

_The boy waved Laxus' comment off. "I go by many names, but you may call Teivel." Teivel paused, staring down at his 'pet' with a frown. "Bad pet, what did I say about attacking the participants?" he pouted. "Not they're all bloody, probably wont make the game very interesting." The creature whined, slumping down at its masters feet._

_"Hungry, Fairies. Food."_

_"No, no food." Teivel scolded._

_"Game?" Lucy questioned._

_Teivel looked towards them, his child like features growing dark. "My game. You shall play, or you shall die."_

_"What the hell are you talking about?' Laxus demanded._

_"The rules are simple." Teivel continued, ignoring Laxus' demand. "You shall all compete in my game in a team of 20 people. Your goal is to survive and reach the checkpoint. Along the way you shall find equipment, maps, and clues to help you find this checkpoint." Teivel grinned, sending shivers down Lucy's spine. "Don't die now fairies."_

_"What are you talking about!" Laxus snapped in anger._

_Before Laxus could get a decent answer out of this brat, a bright light appeared from Teivel's hands._

_"Bye bye.' he chuckled, firing the beam of light towards them._

_The two mages screamed as the light enveloped them. Teivel smirked when the two disappeared, leaving him and his pet alone in the guild. "Now, shall we go find you something to eat?" he chuckled, scratching the beast's head._

_The beast nodded wagging its tail in excitement._

_With a flick of his hand, the guild doors opened, cool air sweeping into the guild. Teivel smirked, glancing over his shoulder. "What a messy guild." He sighed as the chairs began to float back into place and the bloodstains slowly disappeared into the ground._

_Teivel let out one last laugh as he disappeared into the shadows, his pet licking its lips eagerly, wanting its meal._

"Lucy." A soft voice cut through her thoughts, forcing her to return to reality. Glancing over shoulder, she smiled weakly.

A 10 years old girl stood before her, grinning widely. The girl had silver hair that was normal tied up in two pigtails cascading down to her shoulders. Her large red eye blinked innocently towards Lucy, who stared back. She wore a long sleeve white shirt that was splattered with dirt and dried blood, along with torn shorts that had turned brown with mud.

This girl was Miyu Teryu, of the guild Mermaid Heel. After appearing in this strange world, Lucy and Laxus were almost instantly greeted by two other guild members.

Rain Darl, and Miyu Teryu of Mermaid Heel. It seemed they too were dragged into this 'game' by Teivel. After a couple days the others soon appeared, each there for the exact same reason they were.

To survive and win this 'game'.

To force a 10 year old girl into a dangerous life like this though angered Lucy to a high extent, but having the young girl near her always made Lucy smile.

Lucy glanced at Miyu's small bat like wings that were neatly folded behind her back. To Lucy's surprise after meeting Miyu she had quickly discovered that the girl was half bat demon.

Even with that thought in mind though, Miyu was one of the most energetic and mature members of the group. Though she constantly teased Lucy and the others.

Even after being dragged into this 'game' she was still able to smile. It gave Lucy determination to move forward.

Miyu walked to Lucy's side, igniting her hands in fire. "It sure is cold out here." Miyu chuckled.

Lucy nodded, instantly thinking of Natsu's magic when she saw Miyu's flame. Miyu's magic was very unique in Lucy's opinion. The girl normally used Ice and Fire magic, which on its own was amazing, but Miyu was also able to gain the magic of others around her.

She was never actually stealing or draining others magic, but in a way was copying others magic. It truly was amazing.

"How are your wounds?" Lucy asked softly, concerned when she saw the bandaged along the young girls arms.

Miyu smiled. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. You should go get yourself checked up though. You've been standing watch since we've got back." Miyu pointed out.

Lucy shrugged a bit. "I want everyone else to get fixed up first. I wasn't as injured as the others."

Miyu nodded slowly. "Everything okay?" she asked, seeing the dazed look on the older mages face.

"Huh? O-Oh, yeah." Lucy nodded quickly. "I was just thinking."

"About Teivel?" Miyu guessed with a frown.

Lucy flinched, nodding. "Yeah. I just… don't understand. What is the point of all this? What could he possible gain by making us go through this? Is he watching us from somewhere?" Lucy stumbled over the questions quickly, unable to answer any of them on her own. Miyu was lost for words herself.

"Who knows Lucy. I'm sure we will figure out though." Miyu smiled encouragingly. "Now, how about you go inside and get bandaged up. I'll stand watch."

Lucy chuckled as Miyu began to push her farther and farther into the cave.  
>"All right, all right." Lucy smiled.<br>"Hey." Lucy paused when Miyu called to her.  
>"Yes Miyu?" Lucy asked over her shoulder.<br>"You know, Rain hasn't bandaged Laxus' wounds up." Miyu giggled. "How about you go help him with his wounds? I'm sure he would enjoy your company" Miyu smiled innocently.

Lucy flinched, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "W-What is that suppose to mean?" she demanded.

"Nothing." Miyu sang innocently. "Now, shoo, he's waiting."

Lucy pouted continuing to walk towards the fire inside the cave.

**Well, here it is. The reason I did not add all of the other characters into this chapters is because I still need 5 more for the 'game'. I've got a lot of Oc's, but then I also have Hibiki from Blue Pegasus, Juvia from Phantom Lord, and Lyon from Lamia Scale. I just need one more person for Sabertooth, Quatro Cerberus, and Phantom Lord. Then I need 2 more people for Raven Tail. I could add actual characters from the manga to those guilds such as Gajeel and such, but if any reviewer out there wants to make one last Oc before the next chapter, go right ahead. ^_^**

**I want to thank everyone who had all ready given me an Oc Character. Thanks a bunch guys! Thank you Stara-chi for your Oc character, Miyu! ^_^**


	4. Chapter 4

Laxus scowled in pain, glaring at Lucy furiously.

Lucy was kneeled down next to Laxus, who was sitting with his legs crossed in front of the fire. Laxus' shirt was gone; revealing several rows of fresh cuts and bruises.

"Oh don't be such a baby." Lucy glared back as she wrapped the bandage around Laxus' arm, which had a large cut leading from his shoulder down to his elbow.

Laxus frowned, not arguing any more. The two blonds looked up when someone started to chuckle.  
>"You two get along so well." Hinagiku Zeelmart smiled. Hinagiku, one of the last members of the 'game' to appear, was a 16-year-old Snow Mage who was apart of Lamia Scale. With long white hair normally pulled back with a headband and light blue eyes, she stood at a small height of 5'2 with light Ivory skin.<p>

Her normal outfit involved a black Halter babydoll dress with matching black leggings and Mary Jane shoes.

Hinagiku had arrived with her fellow guild member, Lyon Vastia.

Lucy, instantly thinking of Mira, shook her head. "I don't really think so."

"I second that." Laxus nodded.

Hinagiku chuckled before sitting across the opposite side of the fire from the two blonds.

"I don't know, I think you two get along better then you would like to admit." Rain Darl announced smirking, stepping next to Lucy.

Rain Darl, a 17-year-old member of Mermaid heel, stood at a tall 5'9 with long waist length spiky black hair with natural white bangs that were brushed over her face covering her left eye. She had light purple eyes the shined brightly in the lighting of the fire.

Her normal outfit involved a long sleeved black sweater, that was currently cut in different areas and covered in dirt, and knee length white shorts, revealing Rain's pale and severely bruised legs.

Rain, just as the others in the group, had her own magic that made her special. Rain was able to use healing magic, as well as a bit of Air. Though she mainly used Weather magic during fights. She could control the weather at whim.

Rain had told everyone though a few days after meeting her, "This world makes it hard for me to use my magic. I feel much weaker then usual when I use my magic."

Everyone had to agree with her.

Lucy looked up at her with a pout, her cheeks a tint of pink. "Do not. Besides, shouldn't you be tending to everyone else's wounds?" Lucy looked up at the group's healer questionably.

Rain, realizing her duties, rushed off to the others.

"Shouldn't you get your wounds checked as well?" Laxus questioned, raising his eyebrow at the younger mage.

Lucy smiled. "I'm fine, I wasn't as injured as the rest of you."

"You did take that nasty shot to the head though. I heard it to! It made this big "POP' sound, then you fell. You probably cracked your skull. You might even die!" Hinagiku gasped, covering her mouth.

The boy next to Hinagiku, know as Lyon Vastia, cringed. "Really?" He looked towards her. "You should definitely get it checked then." He frowned towards Lucy.

Laxus pointed to Hinagiku and Lyon with a nod, showing that he agreed with the younger snow mage and ice mage. "My point exactly!"

Lucy rolled her eyes at the two. "I'm fine, honestly. I little hit on the head isn't a big deal." Lucy insisted, not giving into Hinagiku's hyperactive imagination. True, Lucy did feel a little dizzy when the tree trunk one of the beasts had thrown at her hit her, but she felt fine after a few minutes.

"I don't know Lucy. You should let Rain check it." A soft voice spoke up.

Lucy looked towards the corner of the cave, where 18-year-old Yuuki Hayato sat, her face barley visible from the dim light of the fire.

Yuuki, one of the newest members of Sabertooth, slowly walked over to them, sitting next to Hinagiku, who grinned at the older mages presence.

Yuuki, who was a Spell Mage, had shoulder length black hair with dark blue eyes that looked black in certain lighting. She was 5'3 only standing a few inches higher then Hinagiku.

Being a Spell Mage she normally fought using her spell book and magical wand.

Lucy, when first meeting Yuuki, instantly thought of a witch, which in a small way, was true.

Yuuki's normal outfit was a black blazer with golden buttons, a black plaid shirt that lead just a few inches above her knees, and knee high boots where she would normal conceal her magical wand.

"It could turn out to be a concussion." Yuuki twiddled her fingers nervously when all eyes fell on her. "A-And that would be bad. If we were suddenly attacked I mean."

Hinagiku nodded in agreement. "Yup. Be pretty bad." She nodded vigorously. Lyon shrugged with agreement.

"It would be best." He added.

Lucy sighed at her teammates. "Or it could be nothing."

"Better to be safe then sorry." Laxus stared at Lucy intently, causing her to flinch.

"Fine, fine." Lucy pulled tightly on Laxus' bandages, making him flinch.  
>"Careful!" he snapped angrily.<p>

"Baby." Lucy teased simply before gathering the rest of the spare medical supplies and walking towards Rain, who was currently healing Hibiki Lates of Blue Pegasus, Juvia Lockser from Phantom Lord, and Sasha (Side note: Sasha means Alexander in Russia) Onward of Twilight Ogre.

Sasha Ongard was a 17-year-old, Metal-bending Mage. He had pale skin, with white, silver-like, hair that covers one of his dark blue eyes and frames his well shaped face, which had a small imperfection mark, a mole, underneath his left eye.

His normal outfit involved silver hoodie with one blue strip running across his jacket with matching cargo boots and shorts.

Rain was kneeled down in front of Sasha, examining his foot.

"It's fine." Sasha scowled.

"I saw you limping on your way in here, don't try and lie." Rain said calmly, her attention never leaving the foot in front of her as her hands began to glow. Holding up his foot with her left hand, Rain placed her right hand over the injury.

"Drip, drip, drip." Juvia chanted softly, staring down at her wounded arm that Rain had kindly bandaged for her. "Juvia saw the limping too."

Rain smirked up at Sasha in victory. Sasha flinched. "Hmph." He scoffed, looking away.

Hibiki smiled. "Your enchanting smile and kindness is enough to keep me moving Rain." Hibiki smiled sweetly, causing Rain to blush.

"N-Not really." She chuckled nervously, trying to focus back on Sasha's foot. Rain glanced over her shoulder when Lucy placed the spare bandages next to her. "Did you finish bandaging up Laxus?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes, but they wouldn't stop bugging me about that hit I took to the head this morning, so they forced me to come see you. Sorry for the trouble." Lucy smiled apologetically.

"No don't be. That's why I'm here. It would be bad if you got a concussion or something." Rain said quickly, still staring at Sasha's foot. "Just take a seat next to these two and I'll be with you as soon as I'm done with Mr. I'm okay." Rain grinned up at Sasha, who scowled, avoiding her look.

Lucy chuckled, taking a seat in between Juvia and Hibiki.

Hibiki smiled at her, taking her hand. "What an awful morning it was indeed. Not only did those beasts attack us, but beautiful ladies like yourselves were injured. I feel ashamed as a man for not protecting you." Hibiki looked towards the ground, actually looking guilty.  
>"Um… n-no, it's okay. You had to watch your own back, and getting attacked by monsters is pretty normal." Lucy stuttered, feeling a little uneasy.<p>

"Isn't that the truth?" Rain sighed, nodding in agreement. Juvia nodded.

"The monsters were so mean to Juvia today." Juvia whined, her attention turning to her arm once more.

Lucy and Hibiki chuckled a bit while Sasha folded his arms, leaning his back against the wall behind him.

After a while, Lucy looked around towards the cave, realizing that besides those who were at the fire (Laxus, Yuuki, Lyon and Hinagiku) and Miyu, who was standing watch, most of her companions were gone.

"Hey, where is everyone?" Lucy asked, growing worried.  
>"Well, Ruin took Boyd, Ace, Elle, and Mamoru out to get more fire wood and some dinner." Rain began to say, pausing to reach behind her back for some bandages. After grabbing them she turned back to Sasha and began to bandage the small wound that remained. "Then Totomaru is resting towards the back of the cave, and Cecile and Hikari are watching over him. Then I believe Rufus and WarCry are exploring the cave. Once I'm done with you three I'm moving on to Totomaru. That hit to the back affected his spine a bit." Rain paused, seeing Lucy, Juvia and Hibiki's concerned look, frowned. Sasha looked towards her, a bit of worry deep in his eyes.<p>

"Don't worry." She grinned. "I'll fix him up. He'll be back on his feet by tomorrow."

"If we don't get attacked first." A cold voice muttered behind Rain.

Lucy looked up in surprise. "Hikari!" she gasped in surprise.

Hikari Wantanabe stood behind Rain, her arms folded over her chest; her ice blue eyes were just as cold as always.

Hikari, a 20-year-old mage from Raven Tail, was an S-class fire mage. She had short black hair that spiked up in all directions. Using 2 bobby pins she kept her fringed bangs down. She had a slender body with pale skin that showed a few scars (She had once told them they were from past missions) and stood at a height of 5'6. She was in her normal dark blue t-shirt with a matching skirt that went down to her knees, and covered by her long black coat that barley reached to her ankles.

"How is he doing?" Rain asked softly as she finished bandaging up Sasha's foot, carefully placing it on the ground. "Don't stand on that for a couple hours." She ordered, pointing at him.

Sasha scowled, but did not argue with the 'Doctor's' orders.

"He's as much of a hothead as ever." Hikari grimaced.

Rain chuckled a bit. "That's good to hear." She smiled at Hikari before scooting to Hibiki. Rain blinked when she saw he was all ready bandaged up.

Hibiki smiled. "Alas, seems you were beaten to this patient." Hibiki chuckled.  
>"Then why were you waiting for her to treat you?" Lucy questioned.<br>"Who even treated you?" Sasha questioned, folding his arms.

"I wanted to bask in Rain's sweet fragrance!" Hibiki answered then turned to Sasha, "Sweet Yuuki of course." Hibiki winked.

Rain frowned a bit. "Please step aside so other patients can get help." She said sternly, pinching Hibiki's cheek and forcing him to stumble away from the group.

Hibiki chuckled before walking over to join those who were at the fire.

"Honestly." Rain sighed, moving to Lucy, who chuckled. As Rain began to check on Lucy's head, Hikari sat down, folding her arms.

"Oh Hikari, do you have any injuries?" Rain asked as she made Lucy turn her head to the left to check the back of her neck.

"No." Hikari answered simply.  
>"Don't push yourself too much Rain." Lucy added. "We definitely don't need you collapsing on us."<p>

"Agreed." Hikari and Sasha echoed.

"Juvia most definitely agrees." Juvia nodded vigorously.

"Agree to disagree." Rain countered. "I'm fine. This is one of the main things I can do for everyone." Rain grinned, but Lucy could see those faint lines under Rain's eyes. She was just as tired as the rest of them, even if she didn't want to admit it.

"All right, but once you're done with Totomaru, make sure to rest for a bit." Lucy said sternly.

"Yeah." Sasha nodded, though quickly looked away. Hikari didn't say a word and stared towards the fire, which had begun to dim.

Juvia smiled.

Rain stared at the three before looking at her feet, a soft smile on her face. "Okay." Rain chuckled softly. Rain looked back at Lucy's neck, making her tilt her head down. "Well, I don't think anything is wrong, how do you feel?"

"Fine. I was a little dizzy after being hit, but it quickly went away." Lucy explained.

"That's to be expected." Rain nodded. Rain held her hand up in front of Lucy's face. "Follow my finger." She instructed. Lucy did as she was told and followed Rain's finger with her eyes as Rain moved her finger around slowly. After a while Rain stopped, smiling. "I don't see anything wrong, and you seem to be able to focus fine. There is still a chance of some damage so if you get headaches or anything later come and tell me."

Lucy nodded, smiling. "Thanks Rain."

"Anytime." With that Rain rose to her feat. "Well, I'm going to go check on Cecile and Totomaru. Call me when Ruin gets back with everyone." Rain turned and quickly walked towards the back of the cave, where another small fire was going.

Lucy smiled as she watched her leave, and then glanced at Hikari. "You sure you're okay?"

"Positive." Hikari answered briskly, staring ahead blankly.

Lucy nodded. "Okay."

"Drip, drip, drip." Juvia chanted once again, staring at her feet. Lucy glanced at her blue-headed companion, chuckling.

"The others are back!" Miyu's voice called into the cave from the entrance. Lucy smiled, jumping to her feet to run to the entrance. She paused, looking back at Sasha, who blinked.

"Don't stand on that foot." She reminded him as she walked away, causing him to frown in annoyance. Lucy then pointed to Juvia. "Make sure Sasha doesn't try to walk around." She requested with a grin.

"Huh? Oh, o-okay." Juvia nodded. "Juvia will give it her best." Sasha scowled deeper at Juvia's statement.

Lucy quickly walked to the entrance, grinning at the sight of 5 forms trudging in the rain towards the cave, a large bear like creature being dragged behind them.

"We got food!" Boyd D. Ward, the mage from Quatro Cerberus, called to them, waving his arms in the air. Boyd was a 21-year-old Equip Mage that stood at a tall 6'1. He had a well-toned body with blond hair and blue eyes with a gray like tint.

He trotted towards the cave in his normal butler like tux, his black skeleton key, which hung on a chain around his neck, swayed back and forth.

"Idiot, you'll let the whole forest know we're here if you yell like that." Ace mocked, causing Boyd to flinch, throwing his hand over his mouth. Ace Frost, the aggressive 16-year-old Gravity mage of Blue Pegasus. His wild dark blue hair with black streaks flattened a bit by the rain, making it hang down his face. He had sharp onyx eyes and pale, almost white, skin.

He had a short sleeve black shirt with dark blue jeans and long white cloak barley reaching above his ankles.

Lucy had been most shocked when she had first met Ace two months ago. When Lucy was a child, she was a good friend with Ace Frost. To see him no was surprising, relieving, and yet terrifying. She was extremely overjoyed to see Ace at first, but then realized where they were. It was unfair that Ace had to be dragged in this 'game' alone with her.

"S-Sorry." Came Boyd's muffled reply as he trudged forward.

"Lucy!" Ace smiled at the sight of her.

"Hey Ace, how did the search go?" Lucy asked, running to meet the group of five.

"Went off without a hitch of course." Ace smirked.

Lucy chuckled a bit. "I'm glad." Lucy looked towards the other three. "No one got hurt, right?" she asked softly.

"Give us more credit Lucy." Ace scoffed, pushing her inside as the others followed behind.

Lucy stepped aside along with Ace and Miyu as the beast was dragged inside by Ruin and dropped towards the fire.

Ruin rose from her feet, turning to stare at Lucy and the other emotionlessly. "Eat before it begins to decays." She ordered, her eyes cold, as if she intended to kill the next one to step forward.

Lucy, Ace, and Miyu flinched. "O-Okay."

Ruin was 24-years-old from the Southern Wolves guild. She was a Shadow-mage, which allowed her to create illusions and control shadows. She had been one of the top mages in her guild, and was an excellent S-class mage.

She was a pale woman with sleek black hair and emotionless eyes. She was around 5'4 and always wore a red hoodie with black shorts with matching black boots. Oddly enough though she always seemed to carry a black bunny plushie with her where ever she went.  
>Lucy always wanted to know why the plushie was so important to Ruin, but never wanted to pry.<p>

"T-Thanks Ruin." Lucy chuckled, inching forward before fleeing towards the fire, where Mamoru was already walking

"I brought fire wood. I had to fight a wood chuck for these." Mamoru Alia announced as she placed a large bundle of bark, twigs and miniature logs next to Yuuki and Hinagiku.

Mamoru was 21-years-old and was the Perfume Mage of the Southern Wolves. She was 5'10, had long black hair and piercing blue eyes. She was rather thin with mocha like skin. Her normal outfit involved black shorts with a cobalt-blue top covered by a black cardigan, whose sleeves were currently rolled up her elbows.

Yuuki giggled a bit at the comment.

"Wood chuck?" Lyon questioned, staring at the pile then back up at the Perfume Mage.  
>"How many pieces of wood was the wood chuck able to chuck?" Hinagiku interrupted, her expression suddenly growing very serious.<p>

"Seven, but I threw a rock at it and it fell into the river. It would have gotten to 8 if it weren't for me. Then it rose from it's watery grave, a bazooka clutched firmly in its grip, prepared to kill me on the spot." Mamoru said darkly, looming over Hinagiku.

"Ehh!" Lyon jumped back a bit at the terrifying look in Mamoru and Hinagiku's eyes.

"How did you escape?" Hinagiku questioned, folding her arms.

"I used Ace as a human shield, then with my ninja like skills I disappeared into the shadows of the tree." Mamoru explained, her expression serious.

"…"

"This conversation… is pretty off topic." Lucy muttered softly.

The two stared at each other for a long time, neither blinking. After a short awkward silence, the two fell to theirs sides in fits of laughter.

Yuuki chuckled at their behavior while Laxus stared, unamused.

"Your humor makes no sense." Elle Dart, a 17-year-old member of the guild Twilight Ogre, stated bluntly as she loomed over the two. She was a Melting Mage: She was able to melt different objects with her eyes, and un-melt them as long as the object were something small, such as a block of wood. She has wavy dirty blond hair that goes just past her shoulders that she constantly brushes. Her eyes were something that really astounded Lucy, and most of the others. While on eye was a blue, the other was a light pink. Elle had told everyone when everyone had first met her, that her pink eye was the one she used to melt objects with.

She wears a light yellow bandeau, short cargo short, and a flowing white short sleeve cardigan that goes down to her knees. The necklace around her neck never leaves her side, even while she sleeps. Elle had yet to explain to Lucy why that was, but Lucy didn't want to pry.

"Elle." Lucy smiled, walking up to her.

Elle looked towards Lucy, nodding in acknowledgment. "Where is Rain?" The Melting Mage questioned, staring around the cave.

"Rain is checking on Totomaru as we speak."  
>Elle paused. "Is he… okay?" she asked slowly, her voice holding to emotion.<p>

"Rain said he would be fine." Lucy explained. Elle's shoulders relaxed and she nodded.

"I see."

Lucy chuckled a bit. Though Elle seemed like a monotonous girl, Lucy could see that she was truly concerned for everyone's safety, even if Elle couldn't show it well.

"I shall cut off the head." A voice announced.  
>"Eh?" Yuuki, who had walked over to Ruin, gasped. "J-Just cut it off?"<p>

Ruin answered Yuuki's question by pulling out miniature sword from her boot and walking towards the bear creature that had begun to make the room smell of death.  
>"How long has she had that in there?" Mamoru questioned softly, staring at Ruin from behind Lyon, Hinagiku at her side.<p>

"Why are you hiding behind me?" Lyon demanded over his shoulder.

"J-Juvia thinks we should cut it open outside. The blood will go everywhere in here." Juvia flinched when Ruin's attention turned to her, her eyes still as cold as ever.

Hikari, who was still sitting next to Juvia with her arms crossed, sent a cold look right back at Ruin. "She has a point." Hikari nodded.

"H-Hikari-san." Juvia said softly, staring at the older girl with admiration.

"Yeah, I don't want to smell blood when I go to bed tonight." Laxus scowled, rising to his feet.

"Then how about you go do it." Ace said, folding his arms at Laxus.

"You're the ones who killed it, you should be the ones to cut it open." Laxus replied calmly.

"We could just leave the head on." Miyu shrugged, shifting the weight on her feet back and forth.

"I prefer that idea." Yuuki nodded softly.

Ruin scoffed a bit, sticking her sword back in her boot.

"I wonder if she gets cuts on her feet whenever she walks." Hinagiku murmured, for some reason still hiding behind Lyon.

"Fine. We still need to take off the fur though." Ruin, grabbed scruff of the creatures neck and began to drag it outside.

"I'll help." Hikari said, rising to her feet to follow Ruin outside the cave.

Elle folded hers arms crossed as she watched the two go.

"Do you wish to assist them?" Boyd smiled at her, causing her to look at him with expressionless eyes.  
>"Not really." She answered. "It would be better though if more then 2 people went though… just in case."<p>

"I see, I shall go with them then." With that Boyd ran out of the cave in pursuit of the Shadow Mage and Fire Mage.

Elle smiled slightly as she watched him leave. Her smile quickly left though when she turned back to the group.

"Hey, where is Rain." Mamoru questioned, looking around the group, confused.

"She's towards the back with Totomaru and Cecile." Laxus answered, pointing over his shoulder.

"Is he okay?" Mamoru asked slowly.

"Rain said his back got hurt from the hit he took." Laxus answered.  
>"Ah, his back snapped like an old man, huh?" Mamoru joked, though there was an odd look in her eyes.<p>

"What about Rufus and WarCry?" Ace asked, sitting down towards the fire and adding an extra piece of wood to it.

"Who knows?" Laxus muttered, folding his arms behind his head and laying back.

"Rain said they were exploring the cave." Juvia announced as she help Sasha towards the fire. Sasha has his arm wrapped around Juvia's shoulders while her's were around his waist. "Slowly." Juvia said softly while Sasha scowled, though his cheeks were a lit tint of pink from embarrassment as he lifted his injured foot in the air behind him while he hopped on his other.

"That's a little pathetic looking." Laxus scowled.

Sasha's glare turned to Laxus, as if threatening to get him later.

Lucy chuckled a bit. If Lucy recalled correctly, Juvia had said that Sasha and her use to live in the same town together. It must have been a little easier for Sasha to rely on Juvia then the others since the use to be old friends.

Juvia gently lifted Sasha to the ground, lifting his foot up a bit to place a small boulder under it.

"It must be elevated." Juvia announced.

Sasha nodded meekly.

"Are you sure you're okay Sasha?" Yuuki asked, concerned as the group began to sit around the fire in a large circle.

"Yeah." He nodded, giving her a small smile.  
>"Ah, he smiled." Hinagiku cooed, sitting crisscrossed on the opposite side of the fire from Sasha, her elbows propped up on her knees while she bent forward so she could rest head on her hands.<p>

Sasha flinched, a small blush creeping on his face.

Lucy must admit though, she felt a little surprised to see Sasha act this way. He had been so cold and distant from everyone when they had first meet. As time passed, he slowly warmed up to everyone. He even smiled… and blushed all in one day!

Lucy grinned in spite of herself. Sasha seemed to have a sort of tsundere personality.

Yuuki giggled a bit, murmuring, "How cute." Under her breath.

Sasha folded his arms and looked away from the group. "How did the hunt go? See anything strange?" he asked towards Ace quickly, trying to change the subject.

Ace lifted his head, suddenly growing interested in the conversation.

"Yeah. Ruin's theory was correct. The river just a mile from here is the only thing in this whole forest that doesn't change every night. The pole Elle put there yesterday was still there, with the river along with it." Ace announced.

The group paused, thinking this over carefully. Since joining the game, they had to think things over carefully. Even the smallest clue could give them some way to escape this terrible place.

"Think it means something?" Lyon asked, leaning forward.

"Who knows, it could be nothing." Laxus shrugged.

"Juvia could not move the water there, not matter how much Juvia tried." Juvia announced.  
>"That's definitely something then." Hibiki nodded, rubbing his chin in thought.<p>

"That water is pretty pure too. Not a single drop of dirt or pollution." Sasha added.

They were right, even just by glancing at the river, you could tell it was not something normal. "Rain said she had appeared by the river when first arriving. Would that mean anything?" Yuuki asked softly.

"It could." Miyu muttered, staring deep into the flames of the fire.

Hinagiku shivered. "That river gives me the creeps honestly. It had bad vibes to it."

"Like Ace's personality?" Mamoru questioned blankly.

Lucy couldn't help but giggle a bit.  
>"That isn't funny!" Ace snapped, causing the group, besides Elle who rubbed the back of her neck, to burst out into laughter.<br>"It is when you react like that." Hibiki chuckled.

"So says the sparkly play boy." Ace said stiffly, folding his arms.

"I at least have the right looks to be a play boy." Hibiki stated back.

"It doesn't count if your mom says it Hibiki, it has to be actual girls." Ace smirked.

Hibiki flinched. "I've been told I have great looks from tons of girls, not just my mom, and she is a wonderful lady!" Hibiki growled, loosing his calm for a split moment.

Ace held up his hand defensively. "Right, right." He shrugged casually.  
>"Oh, stop being mean to him Ace." Lucy scolded, causing Ace to smirk.<p>

"Had to have a girl come to your rescue." He sneered towards Hibiki.

"Miyu had to save you from that monster 2 days ago though, and she's only a 10 year old girl." Mamoru pointed out.

Ace flinched. "I didn't need rescuing." He yelled.  
>"You were screaming like a girl." Miyu announced calmly, causing Laxus to snicker from his spot of the ground.<p>

"Was not, I was perfectly fine on my own." Ace argued.  
>"So then why did I have to save you?" Miyu questioned, giving him a small smirk.<p>

"You didn't rescue me!" Ace barked.

"Yeah she did." Elle interrupted, her expression blank, though there was a small hint of amusement in her voice.

Yuuki covered her mouth, wishing to stop her giggles.

Hinagiku and Mamoru began to laugh, pointing at Ace mockingly. Laxus soon joined along.

"Laxus." Lucy scolded, looking over her shoulder at the older blond.

"What?" Laxus questioned, still trying to control his laughs.

Lucy rolled her eyes before getting to her feet, stepping over Laxus to walk deeper into the cave.

"Where are you going?" Laxus called to her.  
>"To check on Rain and Totomaru." Lucy answered over her shoulder before disappearing into the darkness. Laxus shrugged before looking back at the group.<p>

Lucy roamed through the darkness, smiling in relief when she spotted the second fire a few meters away. Quickly rushing towards the light, Lucy's smile faded.

In front of her was Rain, who was crouched down to a boy who was lying on his side, his face scrunched up in pain. Rain's expression was grim, a visible bead of seat as she stared down at the boys back, her hands glowing a light shade of green as she hovered up and down his spine.

From Lucy's position, you could easily see part of the boy's spine sticking up in the skin, causing a small bump to form.

Lucy wanted to cringe, but held it back.

"R-Rain?' she stuttered, trying to keep her voice calm, but was failing.

Rain slowly looked over her shoulder, frowning. "Hey Lucy." She said quickly, turning back to the boy.

Totomaru.

Totomaru was a young man, only 18. He was a Rainbow Mage of Phantom Lord. He had long, two-tones hair that was black and white and normally tied up in a (Japanese style) topknot on the back of his head. A large portion was black, overlaying the front and right side of his head leaving the smaller portion of white concentrated on the left. The top not also had 2 separate colors corresponding with one another.

At the moment his shirt was gone, leaving his sweat covered body in only his jeans.

Lucy quickly scrambled to Totomaru's side, taking his shacking hand in worry.

Totomaru's eyes slowly opened, pain instantly filling them. Glancing at Lucy, he grinned a bit.  
>"Who dragged the blond in?" he muttered.<p>

Lucy could only let out a painful laugh, but it quickly died.

"T-Totomaru." She whispered softly, completely unaware of just how bad his condition had gotten. Lucy should feel her shoulders shacking in fear for her friend, but felt calmer when someone placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Whirling around, Lucy saw Cecile Ida Shadow. The 14-year-old Shadow mage of Raven Tail. Her long white hair with a grayish tinge was neatly pulled back over her shoulders with a black ribbon with a small silver bell on it. Her silver blue eyes were shinning in the light of the fire. Her black dress that fell to her knees was ripped and covered in dirt, just like everyone's cloths.

"W-Will he be-"

"I don't know." Rain answered, her attention never leaving Totomaru's back.

"This is bad." Cecile muttered. "If we get attacked now-"

"Don't think like that." Rain snapped quickly, her voice oddly calm though. Rain hands stopped glowing so that she could slowly place her palm on the bump, causing him to flinch. "Lucy, give Totomaru some cloth or something to protect his teeth. He's going to need it."

Lucy, realizing what Rain intended to do, scrambled for any spare cloth she could use.

"Cecile, go find Rufus and WarCry, tell them to come back. I'm sure they are in these tunnels somewhere." Rain said softly, brushing some of Totomaru's hair away from his face.

Without missing a beat Cecile grabbed a piece of burning wood a torch, and started walking down the tunnels in search of Rufus and WarCry, a spare piece of wood by her side in case the fire burned too fast.

"Rain?" Totomaru asked softly.

"Don't worry. I'll fix ya up. I'm not letting you get killed by monsters cause I couldn't heal one little spine injury." Even as she said that though, Lucy could hear the quiver of fear deep in her voice.

Fore everyone got scared sometimes.

They could only hope that they could heal Totomaru's back before sun rise, before 'they' began to appear again.

**Here we are. I want to thank everyone for the Oc's. I still haven't brought everyone into the story, such as Rufus and WarCry, but they will appear in the next chapter. This is the longest chapter I've written so far for Fanfiction! I'm so excited! :D I sort of-ish ended on a cliff hanger. Sorry for the wait. The next chapter wont take as long, I just had to get all the characters (except for Rufus and WarCry) down. **

**Special thanks to,**

**Princess Happy, for the characters: Totomaru, Rufus and WarCry. **

**Neko-Tiara for: Mamoru Alia**

**heavenlyXblueXangel for: Ace Frost**

**rayaisaninjaa for: Yuuki Hayato**

**5150Chaos for: Sasha Ongard**

**HinaSnowBastia for: Hinagiku Zeelmart**

**Stara-chi for: Miyu Teryu**

**AllieJenzie for: Rain Darl**

**Gentleheart for: Ruin**

**Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww for: Boyd D. Ward**

**MillionStars for: Elle Dart**

**Forever In The Fire for: Hikari Wantanabe**

**awesome for: Cecile Ida Shadow**

**If any of your have any suggestions to make YOUR characters better, please don't hesitate to tell me. **

_Have you ever seen a friend fall to the ground in front of you, the only emotion on their face is that of pain? I have. It's scary. You know what is causing them pain, and all you want to do is help, but you have no idea how. It makes you feel weak and pathetic. That's my inspiration for the ending of this chapter._

_I've heard that war is a constantly changing thing. At moments things are calm, small moments of Happiness filling the gaps. Yet suddenly tragedy can hit so fast, without anyone being able to stop it. _


	5. Chapter 5

"What!' the group gasped, staring up at their young Celestial mage in shock.

After placing the piece of cloth in Totomaru's mouth to protect his teeth, Rain began to push the part of Totomaru's bone back into place. The large scream that emitted from the young man's throat caused the rest of the group to come running.

After seeing Totomaru's condition, Lucy was forced to make everyone step back to give Rain room.  
>"N-No way! Rain said Totomaru would be fine." Juvia cried out.<p>

Lucy frowned, rubbing her forearm. "Yes, but… The injury is more serious then she thought." Lucy explained, trying to stay calm.

"What does that mean? How bad is he?" Ace demanded, stepping forward.

"Will he be all right?" Yuuki asked softly, worry filling her eyes.

"What do we do if he can't get better?" Hinagiku questioned, rubbing her chin.

"Carry him around. It would be the greatest piggyback ride ever." Mamoru joked, though there was an odd look deep in her eyes showing as her only sign of being worried.

"That wouldn't work. If it is his back he probably shouldn't be moved." Sasha announced, leaning against Juvia for support.

"So… what do we do then?" the group turned to Lucy, who had been silent through the whole line of questions.

"I…. Don't know." She confessed. "I have no idea." Lucy gasped a bit when a strong, comforting hand grabbed her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder to see it was none other then Laxus. She blinked, slowly smiling gratefully at him.

"What is with the huddle?" A voice behind them asked.

The group turned once more turned the mouth of the cave to see Boyd, Hikari, and Ruin staring at them, small bundles of meat, bone, and fur pelts in their arms.

"It's seems Totomaru's injury was worst then we first thought." Hibiki announced gravely.

"Rain may not be able to heal him." Lyon added.

Boyd's eyes widened with shock and worry. Quickly placing the remainders of the bear down, he rushed to the group, wanting to know some answers.

Ruin and Hikari quickly followed, their expressions blank.

"How bad?" Hikari questioned instantly, folding her arms.

"Not sure yet." Lucy stated truthfully. "Part of the bone near the spine was out of place."

"What chance is his recovery?" Ruin continued, folding her arms, her voice oddly soft, almost caring.

Lucy stared at the older Shadow mage in surprise. "If Rain can't heal him… he can't be moved. If she can he should be fine to move." Lucy mumbled nervously. Laxus' grip tightened on her shoulder, frowning.

"He'll be okay. I know he will." Miyu proclaimed, causing the attention of the group to turn to her in surprise. "Rain will definitely heal him."

"She is right. For now all we can do is have faith in Rain abilities." Elle nodded.

"As well as Totomaru's will." Boyd agreed.

"Doesn't that mean he is really going to die then?" Mamoru gasped.

The group paused to stare at the Parfum magic mage.

"No, no Mamoru, 'will' as in… "The will to keep going", not 'will' as in… "He's making his will for his death.'" Lucy explained.

"…" Mamoru blinked, slowly nodding. "So… he's not dying?"

"If you want to think that." Ace shrugged, but was quickly smacked on the head by Hinagiku.

"He definitely wont die Mamoru-chan." Yuuki smiled, trying to be as encouraging as she could.

"At the moment all we can do is wait and hope for the best." Sasha frowned, turning back to hop towards the fire, Juvia quickly coming to his aid.

Hibiki nodded, following after the two with Miyu and Yuuki at his side. The rest of the group quickly dispatched, most heading towards the bear meat for food.

Lucy and Laxus remained, Laxus' hand still on Lucy's shoulder. Lucy slowly looked up towards the older blond, who stared back at her blankly. "Thanks." Lucy nodded quickly, glancing at Laxus' hand.

Laxus, realizing where his hand was, pulled away, letting his arm fall limp at his side. "No problem." He muttered quickly before walking away. Lucy watched the older mage go, her cheeks a tint of pink.

"He liiikes you." A voice slurred above her.

Lucy squeaked in surprise, momentarily thinking that Happy had some how found her. Looking up, Lucy saw Miyu grinning down at her.

"M-Miyu!" she gasped as the younger girl landed in front of her, folding her bat like wings behind her back. "Were you eavesdropping?" Lucy demanded.  
>"I just happened to be flying by… unseen by all." Miyu shrugged innocently.<p>

Lucy flinched, trying her best to control her blush. "That doesn't change anything, now just… g-go back to the others." Lucy avoided Miyu's smirk, frowning.

Miyu chuckled a bit. "Right, okay then. I'm sure you want to be alone after that little 'moment' with Laxus just now." Miyu turned away from the older Celestial mage, who began to sputter wildly.

"T-That wasn't a moment. W-We were just talking, that's all!" Lucy explained quickly.

"Sure, whatever you say Lucy." Miyu giggled before running to join Ace, Hikari, Hibiki, and Yuuki, who were currently trying to make some of the bones from the bear into weapons.

Lucy's frown instantly returned when she was alone. She slowly looked over her shoulder towards the end of the cave, where Totomaru and Rain currently were.

What if Totomaru wasn't able to recover? How could they protect him and themselves? If they stayed here, the beasts would surely track them down, and they would be cornered.

"Lucy." A voice called, forcing Lucy away from her thoughts. Looking up, Lucy saw Cecile Ida Shadow accompanied by Rufus of Sabertooth, and War Cry of Quatro Cerberus.

"Cecile…" Lucy paused to stare at War Cry and Rufus. By Cecile's feet was War Cry, who was crouched down, in a position similar to a dog's as a low growl like noise emitted from his throat. While Rufus stood calmly on the other side of Cecile, his hand over his chest as he bowed to Lucy, greeting her presence.

"I see you found them." Lucy smiled weakly. Cecile gave her a small nod.

Seeing Lucy's tired appearance, Cecile grabbed her arm. "You should rest." Cecile insisted.

"Wha-no, I'm fine." Lucy fumbled nervously, patting the younger girl on the shoulder. "I'll rest once everything has calmed down… just a little bit." Lucy assured her.

Cecile frowned, but didn't go against the older Mages decision. Lucy gave her a bright smile, which seemed to brighten Cecile's mood.

"We passed by Totomaru." Rufus announced.

"He seems to be better." Rufus nodded vigorously. "He was treating me like some dog though, so that brat must be fine." Rufus growled the last part.

Lucy's shoulders relaxed, a relieved smile spreading across her face. "Really? Thank goodness."

"It was his fault after all. He should have paid attention and not get caught off guard like he did." Rufus sighed, shacking his head in dismay.

"I'm sure he didn't intend for this to happen, we all get caught of guard once and a while." Cecile argued.

"I suppose you're right." Rufus nodded. War Cry was about to say more, but paused.

"I smell meat!" he cheered, jumping to his feet and running towards the fire, where fresh meat was being cooked.

"Dinner does sound good." Rufus nodded. "Well Ladies, I leave you." Rufus bowed before disappearing before them and reappearing next to Hinagiku and Sasha, causing them to jump in surprise.

Lucy placed her hand on her heart, letting out a sigh. "Thank goodness." She repeated, still overjoyed from the information on Totomaru. Cecile smiled at Lucy, feeling the same joy.

"Lets go eat." Cecile suggested, pulling Lucy towards the fire. Lucy nodded in agreement, walking side by side with Cecile.

~~~~~~-~~~~  
>The group surrounded the fire, their stomachs full from the delicious dinner.<p>

"That was good!" Hinagiku cheered, patting her stomach.

"I agree." Lyon nodded.  
>"Uh Lyon…. Your cloths." Elle said blankly, pointing at Lyon's exposed chest. Hinagiku turned towards Lyon, her eyes widened. She squeaked in surprise, her face turning as red as the fire.<p>

"Gah!" Lyon gasped, jumping to his feet in surprise.  
>"Weirdo stripper!" Ace yelled, throwing one of the bones of the bear at Lyon's head.<p>

"Yeah, put on some cloths!" War Cry muttered, biting down into another piece of meat.  
>"Shut up!" Lyon snapped, ducking down, scanning the area for his missing shirt.<p>

"L-Lyon was shirtless!" Hinagiku squealed softly, her hands cupping her red face as she stared down at the ground.

Lucy clutched her stomach in laughter, instantly remembering all the times Gray had also stripped. The same habits must have rubbed off on the two from their teacher.

"What a weird habit." Elle murmured, pulling her knees to her chest.

"I wonder if he has ever attracted weirdoes because of it." Mamoru gasped, rubbing her chin in thought.  
>"That would be troublesome." Miyu nodded. Yuuki nodded in agreement.<p>

"I wouldn't be able to handle that type of attention." Yuuki whispered nervously.

"It could attract ladies as well though." Hibiki smirked, sparkles once again appearing around his head.  
>"Who would want that?" Ace questioned.<p>

"Ace!" Hibiki gasped. "I'm ashamed to call you a Blue Pegasus member!'

Ace flinched, scowling. "I'd rather not be some prissy play boy, thank you very much."

"I'm not a prissy play boy." Hibiki argued, folding his arms.  
>"You pretty prissy." Laxus announced.<br>"And a play boy." Boyd added with a grin.

Hibiki flinched, slouching his back a bit with a pout.

"Ah, he's upset." Hikari blinked, staring blankly at the other mages.

Everyone began to laugh when Hibiki's sputtered, obviously flustered. "A-Am not!"

Lucy began to laugh once more. It was nice, these small moments of joy everyone had. It was almost as if they weren't in this 'game' and were just hanging out. Though she would always remember shortly that it wasn't true.

After a short pause, Lucy realized the group had gone silent. Looking up, Lucy saw why. Rain had appeared from the back of the cave, looking exhausted.

"Rain how is-" Juvia gasped when Rain stumbled forward, landing in her arms.

"Rain!" the group gasped, scrambling for their medic.  
>"Rain, are you okay?" Hinagiku gasped, as Juvia carefully placed the older mage on the ground.<p>

Rain chuckled softly. "S-Sorry about that, I'm fine." She muttered, but showed now signs of getting up. "I'm done…." Rain paused, taking a shaky breath. The group crowded around Rain nervously, wanting to know how it went.

"Totomaru… is he-?" Mamoru asked softly.

Rain held up her hand slowly, giving everyone a thumbs-up. "He'll be just fine!" she grinned.

The group stared at their medic for a long time, the information not truly sinking in.

"…Ah!" Lucy gasped, finally realizing what Rain had just said.  
>"He'll be okay!" Miyu cheered, jumping up a bit, flapping her wings with joy.<p>

Cheers erupted from the group, causing Rain to chuckle at their enthusiasm. Lucy crawled to Rain's side, tears threatening to fall.

"Thank you Rain." She whispered. Rain grinned before closing her eyes, falling into a well-deserved slumber. Lucy followed Rain's example and laid next to the older mage.

"She did it!" Hinagiku rooted, jumping up and down, hugging Yuuki who smiled brightly. The two girls paused from their hug to look towards Boyd, who was grinning widely at them.  
>"Aww, come on Boyd, join in!" Hinagiku held out her arms.<p>

Boyd blinked and quickly joined the hug, using his strength to lift up the girls and swing them around a bit.  
>"Hugging!" Mamoru cheered, hugging Boyd from behind, her head resting on his shoulder. Hinagiku cheered again, pulling Juvia and Hibiki into the hug as well. The two laughed, gladly joining along.<p>

"What is with this hugging fest?" Rufus questioned a bit, but gasped a bit in surprise when Miyu flew behind him, pulling him into the hug along with her.  
>"Ah! I knew you wanted to join Rufus!" Mamoru smirked in victory.<br>"I did not." Rufus muttered, his hat shielding his face. Hinagiku laughed, but squeaked a bit when a well built arm wrapped around her shoulders, joining in on the hug. Hinagiku blushed when she realized it was Lyon, who had finally found his missing shirt.

"Elle, join in!" Boyd encouraged, grinning at her. Elle, who had been standing off to the side from the group, stared at him in surprise.

"I-"

"You know you want to!" Mamoru butted in. Before Elle could even try to deny Mamoru's accusation, Boyd had pulled her into the hug, his arm wrapped around his waist, forcing her into the center of the hug.  
>"Hugging!" Yuuki, Hinagiku, Juvia and Miyu cheered, making Elle's cheeks turned a slight pink from embarrassment.<p>

Laxus smirked a bit, folding his arms and leaning against the wall as he watched everyone. Ruin stood next to him, a small almost unseen smile spreading over her lips.

"Told you he would be fine!" Ace laughed.  
>"You did not!" War Cry argued, pulling the younger mage into a headlock.<p>

"Morons." Hikari shook her head disapprovingly, folding her arms.

"Isn't it great Lucy?" Cecile smiled, looking over her shoulder. Cecile blinked in surprise when she saw Lucy, who was lying next to Rain, fast asleep. Rain was the same, a soft smile on her face.

Cecile, realizing the two were asleep, looked towards the group. "Hey morons, be quiet!" she yelled in a hushed voice. "These two deserve all the sleep they can get."

The group was soon hushed, and stared at the two females in surprise.

"I think we all do." Laxus said.

"I'll take the first watch, you all get some shut eye." Hibiki smiled as the hug dispatched.

"You sure?" Boyd asked.

Hibiki nodded. "Good night everyone." He said before walking towards the entrance of the cave.

"Night." Came a few replies before everyone began to roam around for a place to sleep. Cecile laid down next to Lucy, Miyu on the other side of her.

"Today… was sort of nice." Miyu murmured, staring up at the ceiling as everyone began to get settled.

"Yeah… But it won't last. It never does." Cecile frowned. "Knowing our luck, they will probably find us before sun rise."

"It's all right if they do." A voice whispered softly from the several bodies that were spread out amongst the cave. "As long as we're all here, there is nothing to fear… cause… we're not alone."

Cecile's eyes widened, looking towards Miyu to realize she wasn't the one who had spoke.

Sitting up, Cecile scanned the area, trying to pin point who had spoke. Everyone who was still awake looked towards her, showing that they were not the ones who had spoken either.

"Lucy." Laxus muttered, his back turned away from them. "Go to sleep."

"Okay."

Cecile whirled around to see Lucy close her eyes, a small smile on her face.

It was her who had spoken.

**Here is the new chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! ^_^ I had fun writing this one too!**

_Hugging is always a way to show emotions. Either it is for comfort or joy, is all gives us a warm feeling inside. When ever I feel overjoyed or sad, I look towards someone, anyone, for a hug. Hugs can be such amazing things. _

_Even if times are hard, you always have friends by your side. They support you and understand what you're going through. So enjoy those little moments of peace and joy, and don't be afraid when those bad times begin to show themselves again. As long as your friends and family are by your side, there is nothing to be afraid of. _


	6. Chapter 6

As I think back to what has brought me to this point, I can't help but wonder, "Why?"

Why was it that this happened? What did we deserve to be sent to this place? Though the more I think of it, the less an answer will appear.

Stepping out from behind the tree, I scanned the area, searching for any sign of a threat. Seeing no one, I moved forward, the others right behind me.

Rain, who was currently supporting Totomaru, stared up towards the trees, making sure there was no movement from above. Behind them, Cecile and Hibiki were helping Sasha, though he has said several times that his foot was fine.

"It's better not to take chances." Cecile said, forcing Sasha to wrap his arm around her shoulder.  
>"Yes, it would be wise to give your injuries as much healing time as they can get." Hibiki nodded, grabbing Sasha's other arm and doing the same. Realizing he had no chance in convincing them he was fine, Sasha let them help.<p>

I smiled back at him, before turning to look ahead. About a mile a head, I could barely see the other group.

Everyone had come to a decision. When traveling to different locations, the 20-man team would slip up into three separate groups. This was so that if they were attacked, the other groups could have a chance to see the attack, and come to the rescue.

It was better then only a few got attacked and were saved, then all of them being attacked at once with no back up on the way.

The three teams were split up accordingly.

The first team was Laxus, Ruin, Ace, Miyu, War Cry, Rufus and Elle. They would be the first to scout ahead, making sure the paths were clear.

These seven were mainly chosen to lead first because they knew more about scouting and tracking then the others.

Such as WarCry, who was able to use his nose and led the team in another direction if he smelled a large amount of enemies. Then there was Miyu, who was able to fly above the trees and see if there was any location near by they could rest at.

Ruin, Laxus and Ace were excellent fighters, and were able to easily fend off any monsters that happened to come their way.

Rufus was able to use his memory-make magic to warn the others of trouble when it showed up, while Elle was able to make sure no one attacked him while he did so.

Though if any of these members were injured and were still recovering, they would be switched with one of the members of the second team, so they could recover a bit more.

The second team though mainly involved Rain, Cecile, Totomaru, Hibiki, Sasha and myself. The reason for the second team was mainly for those who needed to recover a bit more to do so. Such as Totomaru and Sasha. Since Totomaru was injured and was not able to fight at full strength yet, he was switched with Yuuki, who was now on the third team half a mile behind them.

Rain was mainly on this team because she was the only healer of the group. She was protected by the first and third team, and was able to have easy access to all teams.

Hibiki was on this team for his Archive and Telepathy magic. With this, he was able to locate those who were injured and lead Rain to them. He was also able to warn the Third team, in case an attack made it pass the first team and to them. Or the opposite, such as the third team being attacked from behind.

Then there was Cecile and I. Cecile was on this team mainly for back up if the First or Third team needed it. She could easily sneak up on the beast with her Shadow magic, and rescue those who were injured. This was the same for me. If the first or third team were having trouble with an attack, Cecile and me would be the ones who fought from a far.

Finally there was the Third team, which were Mamoru, Juvia, Boyd, Lyon, Hinagiku and Yuuki. These 7 were mainly on this team to watch everyone's back and make sure no one snuck up on us from behind.

Though Yuuki was not normally on this team and was currently taking Totomaru's place, she was still able to use her spells to attack monsters and warn the second and first team of trouble. Then Juvia, whose body normally turned to water, was to be attacked from behind, could easily avoid any injury. If there were to be an attack she would either warn the other teams, or rush to the rescue others. Lyon and Hikari, oddly enough, made a good team and could easily warn the others of an attack, with the help of Hinagiku who could let the First team know ahead of time with her snow.

Lastly there was Boyd and Mamoru. Since Mamoru was a Parfum magic user, she was able to increase the strength of her comrades until help arrived, while Boyd was able to do most of fighting with his Equip magic.

That was how the 20 of them decided they were going to survive. In a way, it was a divide and conquer strategy. It had worked effectively for the past two months, but recently it had begun to falter just a bit.

It was hard to get to everyone being far apart, and if both the First and Third team were attacked at the same time, it was hard for the second team to come to their aid.

At the moment though, they didn't need to worry about that.

"Any signs of trouble?" Rain called to Hibiki, who currently had his archive floating next to him as he walked. Glancing at the screen, Hibiki smiled. "Nothing as of yet, darling." He called back.

"Don't call me that." Rain snapped back.

"Today is pretty quiet." Cecile commented, shifting her shoulders a bit, making sure Sasha's arm didn't slip.

"Maybe the monsters are tired of playing with us." Totomaru suggested. Thanks to Rain, Totomaru was back on his feet again. The color of his skin had returned, but was still a little paler then usually due to exhaustion.

"Wouldn't that be great?" Sasha sighed a bit. Our group nodded. Once the group, who had begun to climb a steep part of a cliff, reached the top, they looked behind them towards the Third group.

We all smiled when they saw the moving figures towards the distance. Once everything seemed clear, they continued after the First group.

"Even still though, it would be best not to leave our guard down." Hibiki suggested. Everyone nodded.

As we continued forward, into the strange looking forest, I couldn't help but think back to the first day I got there.

At that point, the forest was vast and unfamiliar. Though nothing has changed in the past two months, it was still a little more bearable with all my friends at my side.

The more I thought about that first day, the more my memories began to wonder free.

**-Lucy and Laxus (Day 1)-**

_Silence, that was all that could be heard throughout the whole the mile wide meadow. Even the rain that fell from the sky seemed to make no sound as it hit the ground below._

_Out of that silence, two screams suddenly erupted from the sky. In a burst of light, two figures could be seen, fastly approaching the ground._  
><em>"AHH!" the two screamed, hitting the ground in a sprawled out pile of limbs.<em>

_"W-What the hell!" Laxus, the eldest of the two barked, lifting himself up._

_"O-Ow." I stuttered, rubbing my head._  
><em>"You okay?" Laxus, asked.<em>

_"Yeah. Where are we though?" I asked, clutching my bleeding shoulder that the beast from earlier had bitten into._

_"Who knows." Laxus muttered, grabbing his injured shoulder and stumbling to his feet. "Where did that Teivel guy go?" he hissed, scanning the area. "How did we end up in a meadow?" Staring around the meadow, you could see it was at least a mile wide, and was surrounded by large thick trees on all sides._  
><em>"Teivel must of… teleported us somewhere." I shrugged, rising to my feet and stepping to Laxus' side.<em>

_Laxus scoffed. "Next time I see that guy-" Laxus suddenly flinched in pain._

_"Don't move too much." I gasped, grabbing his shoulder in worry. "You're hurt."_

_"Heh, you're one to talk." Laxus smirked, eyeing her injuries around her waist and shoulder. I blinked, smiling weakly._  
><em>"You're much more worse off then me." I insisted, leading Laxus towards some trees to get out of the rain. Laxus, having no strength left, didn't argue and let me lead him.<em>

_"I doubt there are any towns near here." He muttered as we huddled under the nearest tree._

_"I guess you're right." I nodded, wrapping my arms around myself to keep warm. "What do we do now though?"_

_"Try to find any civilians. See if they know where we are. Then find that Teivel guy." Laxus shrugged._

_I nodded, not truly listening to the plan. I was too distracted by the large forest that surrounded them. Which forest was this? Were they even in Fiore anymore?_

_I was about to say more to Laxus, when we both gasped at a sudden blinding light in front of us. When the light cleared, the two of us could see a piece of paper, rolled up and tied together with a red ribbon, floating in front of them._

_"W-What the-" I mumbled, staring at the paper in shock. Where did this thing come from?_

_I looked towards Laxus, who was just as surprised as me. Slowly reaching for the paper, which didn't seem to be affected by the water above, I brought it under the tree._

_"What is it?" Laxus asked, looking over my shoulder._  
><em>"I think it's a letter." I mumbled, staring down at it.<em>

_"Open it." Laxus commanded. I glanced at him, clearly nervous._

_What if something bad happened after opening it? With how we were now, there was no way we could defend ourselves._

_Laxus seemed determined though, so I couldn't help but go along._

_Reaching for the ribbon, I slowly untied it, letting the slick red ribbon fall from my hand onto the ground. As soon as the fabric hit the ground below, it disappeared in a small puff of smoke. Laxus and me paused to stare, glancing at each other once more._

_Laxus nodded and I continue to unroll the single piece of parchment paper._

**Welcome, to The 20 Man Game! You and another member of your guild have been chosen to compete in a great advent. With the help of the 18 other guild members chosen, like you, you must endure constant challenges and surpass many enemies. For those who do not compete, or complete this game, the penalty shall be severe.**

**Death**

**The goal is to escape the forest, without being killed, and reach the spot located just outside. There you shall face Teivel, who shall be your final challenge.**

**Good luck, have fun, and don't die.**

_After finishing the letter, the two were silent._  
><em>"What the hell?' Laxus muttered.<em>  
><em>"Game? I never agreed to this!" I gasped, re-reading the letter over and over.<em>

_"So we get to face that Teivel guy at the end huh?" Laxus smirked, popping his knuckles._  
><em>"It's says here there are 18 other members." I announced. "I guess we have to team up with them."<em>  
><em>"I don't need to team up with anyone." Laxus scowled. "I can handle this myself."<em>

_"But Laxus, we need their help." I argued, gripping the piece of paper tightly._  
><em>"Maybe a weakling like you, but I don't need anyone." Laxus smirked over his shoulder as he began to walk into the forest. I could clearly see that Laxus was struggle, due to how constant he swayed. He was hurt, and needed help.<em>

_That didn't really make me run after him though. I suddenly felt very angry._  
><em>"W-Weakling?" I shrieked, running after him. "Who are you calling weak?"<em>

_"You." Laxus answered blankly. "Now just leave me be, I have a game to wi-"_

_"Laxus Dreyar!" I screamed, slapping him on the head from behind, causing him to wince in pain and stumble forward._  
><em>"What the hell!" he snapped back, clutching his hand to glare at me.<em>

_"Shut up!" I ordered. "Just shut up for one minute and listen. You can't do this alone Laxus. You and me together couldn't even handle Teivel's PET! His pet Laxus! There is no way you alone can defeat him straight on. We need help. **WE** need to find the 18 other guild members. Maybe they know a little bit more about what's going on. We are in this together though, and we **HAVE** to stick together. You can call me weak all you want, but this is the fact, you need me. You can't survive out there with the wounds you have." I barked. Laxus stared at me, dumbfounded. "So don't give me this, "You're much weaker then me' crap. I don't know where we are or how we got here, but I'm not letting you out of my sight, you hear me!" I knew I shouldn't have yelled at him. He had protected me, and was injured far worse because of me. All I could remember though at that time was fear. Fear of being separated from him and being on my own. I didn't want to leave Laxus' side, so I yelled at him. Like a mother would to a spoiled child._

_There was a long pause, neither of us knowing what else to say. Laxus stared at me in shock, unable to come to words. Perhaps it was the quiver of fear in my voice that made Laxus agree to my terms, or maybe it was the fact that I was right. We would both die if we didn't work together._  
><em>"Okay." He nodded with a sigh.<em>  
><em>"O-Okay?" I repeated softly, her intense glare softening.<em>

_Laxus nodded, avoiding my eye contact. "We should first find some shelter, then tomorrow we can look for the other guild members." Laxus muttered softly, walking ahead._

_I felt a smile of relief pull on my lips. I didn't want to be alone in that weird forest from the very beginning, so knowing that Laxus was going to be by my side put myself at ease._

_"A cave would probably be best." Laxus turned around, looking for any mountains or large rock like structures._

_"There may be some there." I suggested, pointing to their left. At least a mile, maybe two ahead of us, was a large mountain._  
><em>"That will do." Laxus nodded, limping forward, me at his side. I grabbed his arm, trying to support him as best as I could. Wrapping his arm around my shoulder, Laxus leaned against me a bit. With my other hand, I pressed down the wound on my right shoulder while Laxus leaned on my left.<em>

_Slowly though, I could feel Laxus lift his hand towards my right shoulder. He placed his hand over mine, and put a little more pressure on the wound. Staring at his hand in surprise, I looked up at him gratefully._

_He didn't seem to want to look at me._

_After that, we met Rain and Miyu, who had been the second guild members to be transported there by Teivel._

_We had met them in one of the many caves on that mountain._

_Climbing up another large rock, Laxus lifted me up, making sure I didn't slip before he looked towards the caves, trying to find a decent one to sleep in for the night. "Wait." Laxus suddenly paused, pushing me up against the wall._  
><em>"W-What?" I gasped, blushing at how close we were.<em>  
><em>"There." Laxus pointed up, near one of the caves. I looked up to it, surprised to see a small trail of smoke leading from it.<em>

_"A fire?" I guessed._  
><em>"There is someone up there." Laxus narrowed his eyes.<em>

_"Could it be some of the other guild members?" I suggested as we slowly approached the mouth of the cave._

_"We're about to find out." Laxus whispered, creeping inside. I followed after him, trying to be as quiet as I could._

_As we entered the cave, I could see two figures sitting by the low flames._

_By what I could tell, both were females. One had silver hair that was tied up in pigtails, while the other had waist length black hair that spiked up in all directions._

_I looked at Laxus, who frowned back at me. Nodding, I stepped forward. "U-Um, excuse me?" I called, getting both of their attention._

_The two jumped to their feet, ready for a fight._

_W-Wait, we're um… we were just hoping you knew where we are." I announced quickly, waving my arms around frantically. The two didn't seem to by that and stayed in their positions_

_"Who are you?" the youngest, probably 10 years old, demanded._  
><em>"I-I'm Lucy Heartfillia, and this is my companion Laxus Dreyar. We are from Fairy Tail." I explained, motioning for Laxus to step more into the light.<em>  
><em>"Fairy Tail?" the two asked, their shoulders relaxing. "Are you here for the game too?" the taller of the two called.<em>

_"You know of the game?" Laxus asked, folding his arms._  
><em>One snapped her fingers. "I see, you two must be some of the 18 other members. My name is Miyu Teryu, of Mermaid Heel." The youngest announced with a smile.<em>  
><em>"And I am Rain Darl, also of Mermaid Heel. I'm sorry we almost attacked you there, we didn't know…" Rain trailed off, examining us more closely. "You're both hurt!" she gasped, staring at out many wounds.<em>

_Miyu jumped in surprise, tilting her head a bit to get a better look at use. Her eyes widened in horror at the sight of our blood stained cloths, and the large gashes and cuts that covered our bodies._

_"Oh my god." She mumbled, covering her mouth. "Come in, quickly." She motioned for us to come closer to the fire._

_Our bodies complied instantly, our exhaustion getting the best of us._

_Stumbling towards the fire, Laxus helped me sit down. I smiled weakly at him as he fell to his knees, sitting next to me._

_The so-called Rain rushed to me; worry clearly showing in her eyes. "What happened?" she asked, holding her hands out to me._

_"W-We were…" I trailed of at the sight of Rain's hands. They had both begun to glow as her hand hovered over my stomach. "W-What?" I gasped when the pain around my waist had begun to disappear, as if they had never been there._

_"Healing magic." Laxus muttered, staring at Rain's hand in slight awe._

_Rain nodded, giving us a small smile. "I am a Weather Mage, and am able to use a bit of lost magic, such as healing."_

_"That's amazing." I whispered softly as Rain brought her hands towards my shoulder._  
><em>"Were you bitten?" she asked, taking a closer look at the wound. I nodded.<em>

_"A…A beast attacked us." I explained softly, shuddering a bit at the memory._

_Miyu appeared behind Rain, bandages in her arms. "We don't have much, but these might help." Miyu smiled._

_I smiled at them, happy to know that there were kind people such as these two here._

_"Thank you-AH! Y-Y-Your back!" I gasped, pointing towards Miyu, who was currently floating over the ground._

_Miyu blinked, realizing what I mean. "Oh!" she gasped, floating back down to the ground. "I'm sorry if I shocked you. You see, I am half bat demon." Miyu laughed nervously, her wings folding back behind her back._

_"That's explains the wings." Laxus blinked, staring at the younger girl blankly._  
><em>"T-That's so cool!" I gasped. "To be able to fly, it must be fun." I grinned.<em>

_Miyu's cheeks burned a bright red out of embarrassment. "Y-Yeah." She chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. Rain grinned at me. I smiled back but I couldn't help but notice that they also were bandaged._  
><em>"Were you two hurt as well?" I asked, tilting my head. Miyu and Rain glanced at each other, slowly nodding.<em>  
><em>Rain frowned. "Yes. By a man by the name of-"<em>

_"Teivel?" Laxus guessed._

_Rain looked up at him in surprises. "You know him?"_

_Laxus scowled as he stared into the flames. "We had an encounter with him before coming here."_

_"Us as well." Miyu gasped. "Do you happen to know where we are? We got here…" Miyu paused. "At least 20 minutes or so ago. Since it was raining and we appeared by a river only a few minutes from here, we decided to stay here for the night, then look around tomorrow."_

_"An hour ago, that's when we came here. We had the same idea and headed towards this mountain for shelter. It took a while to get here due to our…. Wounds." Laxus explained, wincing a bit as he leaned forward._

_Rain, after examining the rest of my wounds, moved onto Laxus without a second thought. Rain nodded "I see. So you do not know where we are either?"_  
><em>Laxus and me shook our head "No."<em>

_Frowning, the two girls sighed. "That's too bad. It would be nice, to know where we are at least." Miyu muttered softly._

_"I'm sorry we aren't much of help." I apologized._

_"Don't be." Rain insisted. "By what this "game" stats, we have to work together. So that makes us a team." Laxus suddenly flinched when Rain put a little too much pressure on his arm, where Teivel's pet had bitten him. "Oh, don't whine so much." Rain scolded, her hands beginning to glow again as she hovered her hand over the wound._

_Laxus glared at her, causing the three girls to laugh._

_"One guy against three girls, doesn't quiet seem fair." Laxus scowled._

_"Well, after what's happened to us, I don't think you can expect anything to be fair." I chuckled dryly._

_That was how I met Rain and Miyu, the two girls of Mermaid Heel. It wasn't long till the other guild had begun to appear. None of them knew where we were or why they were chosen, all we knew was that we were forced to compete in this 'game'._

_The 20 Man Game._

_Just as we were, all of them were taken from their guilds, or when we were alone._

_For instance Miyu. She had been walking back home from her guild, when Teivel appeared. She said that at first he seemed harmless, only a citizen passing by, but had somehow been able to stop her._

_She told everyone that he wanted her for her strength. That she would make the 'game' so much more fun if she competed._

_Not knowing what he meant, Miyu defended herself when Teivel attacked. He had summoned several different types of beast, in which Miyu had never seen before._

_Miyu's powers of copying any magic didn't seem to work on Teivel though. He was easily able to capture Miyu, grabbing her by her wings._

_Miyu had said after that Rain had come to her aid, using her Weather magic to blow most of the beasts away._

_It turned out that Rain had heard Miyu's screams and came to see what the problem was. Since Miyu was from a rich family, Rain had assumed that Teivel wanted her so that he could steal away the family's money._

_She was wrong though._

_After a short battle, Rain and Miyu were slowly out numbered, and could not fight any longer. They said that Teivel began to laugh, saying "Fabulous! Two members with one stone! Ha! To think, I only came here for the girl, but I get you too!" he had pointed to Rain. "A healer, just what the game needs. Now the game wont end so quickly!"_

_After that, he had used his power to teleport them to this strange world._

_They had appeared near the river that seemed to be the only thing that never moved or changed. (End)_

"Lucy! We just got a signal." Hibiki called, snapping me out of my flash back.

"What did it say?" Rain called back to him.  
>"Laxus says he's found a place to stay. It's just a mile ahead, but it's got a few pests around it though. We should move in." Hibiki announced.<p>

The group nodded. "Get that signal out to the Third group." Totomaru called back to him, picking up his speed while leaning against Rain.  
>"All ready on it." Hibiki mumbled, staring intensely at the screen.<p>

As the group reached our destination, the sight of nine large monsters attacking the First group greeted us.

Once again, the beasts were things we had never seen before. They were all at least 7 feet tall maybe bigger, with large talons and fangs. Most of them resembled lions mixed together with elephants.

"Should we help?" Cecile asked, looking towards us.

"I don't really think they need it." Sasha said just as Ruin jumped up into the air, her hands glowing a dark purple. The beast in front of her howled in pain as the shadows of the trees began to move, wrapping themselves around the beast, throwing it in the air.

"That's an S-Class mage for ya." Rain chuckled, watching in aww as the beast was tossed and turn in the air, before slammed back down into the ground.  
>"Think that will be dinner?" Totomaru asked, clutching his stomach, obviously hungry.<p>

Ruin landed on top of the beast, her expression cold and serious. In her hands was her black bunny plushie, which she constantly held onto, even during battle. The wind suddenly kicked up, blowing her sleek black hair back, almost dramatically.

"Leave it to her to give us a show." Hibiki smirked, leading Sasha towards one of the tress so he could rest.

"Where are the others?" I asked, mainly trying to spot Laxus.

"There." Cecile answered, pointing ahead. Following her finger, I was just in time to see Laxus flick his hand, causing a bolt of lighting to appear from his body and strike two monsters into the ground.

As soon as they hit the ground, they were lifted back up by Ace, who currently using his Gravity Magic.

"Oh ho! Here comes the baseball throw!" Cecile laughed as Ace smirked, pulling his arm back. Lifting his foot up, he smacked it back down, shooting his arm forward like a baseball pitcher would. The beast, which was struggling in the air, we shot forward, flying who knows where into the forest.

After a short pause, you could hear a loud crash, signaling that the beasts had hit where Ace had thrown them.

"Would you call that a home run?" I asked with a small smile.  
>"I call that a foul." Sasha muttered from where he was leaning against the tree. The group fell silent as the watched Elle step forward from behind Rufus, who had his fingers held up to his temples, showing he was sending a single to the Third group.<p>

Elle calmly walked towards 2 of the beasts, which were standing in front of a large pile of rock. Both growled towards Elle as she approached, ready to attack.

"Idiots." Totomaru laughed, realizing what Elle was going to do.

Elle pulled out a sling shot that Mamoru had given her, and pulled the string back, aiming pass the beasts. Due to Elle's past, she did not use her magic often. Since it was dangerous and all she had was bad memories for using it, she didn't like to reveal her Melting Magic. Instead she fought using her skills in combat and her odd ability to defeat any enemy with a slingshot.

Firing the sling shot, a small rock was sent hurling pass the beasts, hitting the pile of rocks.

At first nothing happen, and the beasts stepped forward.

"Tumble!" Totomaru cheered. As if on command, the rocks began to fall, causing others to fall as they passed. Soon the large pile came crumbling down of the beasts, which struggled to escape.

Cecile and Rain cheered, causing Elle to flinch and look over her shoulder at them.  
>"Way to go Elle!" I called to her. Elle, who seemed surprised by their encouraging cheers, looked at her feet embarrassed. After a short while, Miyu, Rufus and WarCry defeated the last four monsters, grinning in victory.<p>

"All clear!" Miyu called up to us, waving frantically after realizing we were there.

I waved back to her, running down the hill towards them. The Third group eventually arrived, happy to rest for a bit.

"Finally!" Lyon whined. "Took you long enough."

"Hey, don't complain. Did you have to fight nine monsters, no you didn't." Ace snapped back at him, poking him in the shoulder.

"You're right I didn't, but if I had, I would have defeated them ten times faster then you did." Lyon smirked.

"Would not!" Ace argued angrily.

Hinagiku swooned once more when Lyon's shirt suddenly disappeared.

"Lyon, your shirt." Hikari announced, folding her arms.  
>"Gah!" he gasped, jumping in the air in shock. Scanning the area, he quickly ran off in search of his missing cloths.<p>

"Lyon, don't run off on your own!" Hinagiku gasped, running after him, Yuuki right by her side.

"I'm sure you left it near the hill Lyon." Yuuki called to him as he turned in that direction.

"Don't run off too far!" Boyd called to them like a worried parent.

"What is he looking for?" Mamoru asked, walking up to me with Juvia.  
>"His shirt." I answered.<br>Mamoru and Juvia stared at me, blinking. "You mean… this?" Mamoru giggled, lifting up Lyon's missing piece of clothing.

"Where did you find that?" Miyu questioned.  
>"Well… he took it off, then threw it, and it hit Juvia in the face." Mamoru answered slowly.<p>

Juvia sniffed, nodding. "It surprised Juvia so much!' She announced. I stiffened, slowly letting out a giggle.

Boyd heard this and cupped his mouth with his hands. "LYON! Come back!" he called to him.

"Yeah you idiot!" Ace called too.

"Who are you calling an idiot!" a voice yelled from the trees as a piece of aquamarine colored ice appeared next to Ace, trying to smack him.

"Hey!" Ace yelled, smacking the ice away. Lyon appeared from the tress, Hinagiku and Yuuki still right behind him.

"Make up your mind Lyon!" Hinagiku cried.

"Making young ladies such as these run after you, honestly Lyon, do you have no class?" Rufus sighed, shacking his head in disapproval.  
>"Shut up!" Lyon snapped.<p>

The group began to laugh again. It was nice, to just laugh everything off.

Lucy couldn't help but feel, that everything was going to go down hill from here though. That today may just be the last day they are able to laugh like this again. Why? Why did she have this feeling? Looking up to the cloud covered sky, Lucy gasped.

"Guys!" She called to everyone. Pausing from their laughter, they looked at Lucy.  
>"What is it Lucy?" Laxus asked.<p>

"…It stopped." Lucy whispered.

WarCry blinked "Huh?"

"The rain." Lucy pointed up to the sky. Everyone's eyes widened in realization. "The rain has stopped." After 2 months of constant rain, it finally stopped.

As Lucy pointed to the sky, she could see the cloud beginning to open up. The group fell silent, unable to speak.

As the clouds moved slowly away from each other, you could it. The sky.

It wasn't their sky though. It was something else.

The sky was pure white.

(~~~~)

A 14-year-old girl stormed through the streets of Magnolia, desperately searching for the Fairy Tail guild. Clutched tightly in her grip was a black hat, similar to a hat a witch would wear.

She had long blond hair that cascaded down her back, leading just above her belly button. This was short about 154 cm tall, and was skinny for her size.

This girl was Kasey, of the guild Sabertooth. About 2 months ago, her fellow guild mates Yuuki Hayato and Rufus had gone missing.

Kasey, being the thunder dragon slayer of Sabertooth, had hoped to find Rufus and Yuuki by sniffing them out. She had been unable to even catch the smallest whiff of their scent though.

Realizing there must be some clues to their disappearance, she headed towards Fairy Tail.

They were the first guild to have members missing, and might have some clues.

With time moving forward, the council had slowly begun to give up the search, leaving the guilds on their own. So she was determined to go to each guild, and demand to know if they had any idea to where their guild members had gone. Even the slightest clue might be enough to give her some idea of where Yuuki and Rufus went.

"Yuuki." Kasey whispered softly, pausing to stare down at the witch's hat. When Yuuki had disappeared, this was the only thing left behind. Yuuki loved this hat. She wore it everyday.

It was a symbol of her Spell caster Magic.

Forcing away her tears, Kasey continued on. She smiled at the sight of the large guild building just ahead. Starting out into a sprint, Kasey quickly approached the guild.  
>"I made it." She smiled, staring up at it. Gripping the hat tightly, she stepped towards the doors.<p>

Once she opened them, she was surprised at how quiet the guild was. From what she heard, this guild was always so loud and energetic.

Yet seeing it now, it made her realize just how much the disappearance of Lucy Heartfillia and Laxus Dreyar affected the guild.

Stepping inside, she softly closed the door. Everyone instantly looked up, as if expecting her to be someone they knew. After realizing she was not who they wished her to be, they quickly went back to their quiet conversations.  
>"Oh, hello there. Can I help you?" A soft voice asked. Kasey looked towards the bar to see a woman with long white hair and kind blue eyes smiling at her. If she recalled correctly, this was Mirajane.<p>

Realizing she had to speak, Kasey nodded. "Yes. I have a few questions for this guild." Kasey announced, stepping towards the bar.

"Oh, and what might those questions be?" Mirajane asked.

Kasey narrowed her eyes.

"About the disappearance of the 20 mages two months ago." She announced.

Everyone in the room seemed to be listening to her conversation, and stopped to look at her.

Mirajane's eyes suddenly filled with sadness. "I-I see." She stuttered. "I'm sorry I can't be of much help. We don't… know much of the disappearance of our own mages." Mira sniffed softly, tears appearing in her eyes.

Suddenly feeling guilty of bringing the subject up, Kasey grabbed Mira's hand, hopping to comfort her.

"I-It's okay." Kasey said with a weak smile. "I just…" Kasey lifted up Yuuki's hat. "A friend of mine disappeared from my guild as well. I was just hoping to find some clues to where she had gone." Kasey's eyes softened as she ran her thumb of the slick fabric, remembering all the times Yuuki and her had spent together.

Mira's eyes widened, understanding Kasey's pain. "I'm sorry." She whispered softly. "The last one to see one of our missing mages was Natsu Dragneel." Mira looked towards Natsu, who was staring at them.

Jumping to his feet, Natsu walked over to the bar. After examining him closely, Kasey could see that the pink haired mage had not slept in weeks, and probably hadn't eaten since then as well.

"Hello.' She greeted him. Natsu nodded back. "I came, to ask if your guild had any clues, anything at all to where your guild members went."

Natsu looked down to his feet, gritting his teeth. "Nothing." He muttered. "I can't find their scent anywhere."

"Neither can I." Kasey agreed. Natsu looked up at her, obviously confused by her comment.  
>"Oh! I'm sorry. It was rude of me not to say my name. My name is Kasey, I am the Thunder Dragon Slayer of Sabertooth." Kasey bowed a bit.<p>

"A dragon slayer?" Mira gasped, staring at her in shock.

Kasey nodded. "If I remember correctly, you are the Fire Dragon slayer of Fairy Tail."

Natsu nodded meekly. "Yeah."

Giving him a weak smile, Kasey sighed. "Sorry to trouble you. I should have known that the other guilds wouldn't know much either." Staring at the hat in defeat, Kasey sniffed. "I'll be leaving now."

"If we find anything, we'll let you know." Natsu called to her as she walked towards the door.  
>"I shall do the same for you." Kasey nodded as she approached the door. "I hope you all find your missing mages."<p>

"The same for you miss." An elderly man, probably the master, nodded from his spot towards the other side of the guild.

That was that. There wasn't much any of them could do, huh? Only wait, and hope their missing mages would return. That wasn't good enough for Kasey though. She was sure that Fairy Tail and the other guilds felt the same.

As she reached for the door handle, Kasey sniffed one last time. Freezing, she looked over her shoulder.

What was that? That odd smell? Though it was very faint and had begun to mix together with the other smells of Fairy Tail, it was still there.

It was a dark and nasty smell. Similar to the one she had experienced when she entered the guild a day after Yuuki and Rufus disappeared.

"What the-" she muttered, turning around to take another whiff.

"What is it?" a scarlet haired mage questioned, stepping towards me.

"It's the same." Kasey whispered in shock. She walked farther into the guild, the smell getting a bit stronger. "Natsu, do you smell this?" she asked, circling the room. Natsu tilted his head up, sniffing the air. "I've smelled it for a while, I just didn't know what it was." He confessed.

"This smell is at my guild too. It wasn't there-"

"Till your friends disappeared?" Natsu guessed, causing Kasey to pause and look at him.  
>"…Yes." She nodded.<p>

The guild fell silent, staring at the two young dragon slayers dumbfounded.

Was this it? Was this the clue they had been searching for through these pass two months? A clue that had been right under their noses, right in their own guild.

"I don't think this is coincidence." Kasey admitted softly.

"I believe you are right." Makarov nodded. "If what you say is true, and this smell is in your guild and ours, and only appeared after the disappearances, then that must mean…" The master paused, thinking over his words carefully. "Then we may not just have a disappearance on our hands."

"What do you mean Master?" Levy asked softly, stepping towards the small man.

"Some one has taken the 20 missing mages, for what purpose I do not know, but I do know that these disappearances are no accident. We may have a kidnapping on our hands." With that the master turned back to his office, probably going to warn the council.

Macao sighed, obviously not liking the sound of that. "A kidnapping, huh?" he whispered.

"This seems a little familiar though, doesn't it?" Wakaba muttered.  
>"What do you mean?" Gray asked, looking towards the elder men.<p>

"I mean, that I think this happened before. When I was very young. Don't you remember something like this Macao? I think I was 6 at the time." Wakaba announced.

Macao thought for a moment. "That was such a long time ago, over 30 years. I think your right though." Macao gasped.

The two older mages, realizing they may have stumbled upon something, rushed to the master office. "Master!" they yelled, bursting into the office and slamming the door closed behind them.

The guild was silent. Something like this had happened before? Was history repeating itself?

Kasey and Natsu looked at each other, unable to come to words.  
>"W…Who are you looking for?" Natsu asked, staring at Kasey's hat.<br>"My friend Yuuki Hayato and Rufus." Kasey answered softly. "Do you think we'll find them?"

"Of course we will." Natsu let out a grin, determination shinning in his eyes.

**Oh… My….God. This has got to be the longest chapter I have ever written… in my life! I wasn't even paying attention to how many words I was writing, I was just writing down everything that was in my head. Once I stopped and looked though, I fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe it! Over 7000 words! I hope you all don't mind the long chapter 0.0**

**Some of you have asked though for a list of which guild all the 20 mages are in. So here it is!**

Fairy Tail: Lucy Heartfillia and Laxus Dreyar (You probably all knew this ^_^)

Sabertooth: Yuuki Hayato and Rufus

Twilight Ogre: Sasha Ongard and Elle Dart

Lamia Scale: Lyon and Hinagiku Zeelmart

Quatro Cerberus: Boyd D. Ward and WarCry

Mermaid Heel: Rain Darl and Miyu Teryu

Raven Tail: Hikari Wantanabe and Cecile Ida Shadow

Phantom Lord: Totomaru and Juvia

Southern Wolves: Mamoru Alia and Ruin

Blue Pegasus: Hibiki and Ace Frost

**Well, here they are all. I hope this helps any confusion you may or may not have**

I would also like to thank **Jamie** for the character Kasey. I'm sorry I couldn't add Kasey into the 'game' because there were all ready 20 characters, but that doesn't mean I can't add her into the story. I hope I got her the way you imagined her. Your character also helped bring us into the next step of the story. ^_^ So thank you ^_^

_Those small, almost irrelevant clues can change the outcome of any situation. For it's those small clues that give us hope. Hope that we can see our lost loved ones again. _

_For any battle, a strategy is needed. If you just go running out into the battle field, you are sure to die. If you have friends though, and can come up with a plan, then you can survive. A strategy can come in handy, much more then you realize. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay guys, really quick. I honestly love this song, so I'm adding it because I thought it fit the mood. I do not own this song though! (The song I am referring to will be showed later on in the chapter) If any of you have seen the movie it belongs too, or recognize the lyrics, you'll understand. **

**(Challenge for this chapter: Does anyone know what movie the song Hikari sings is from? :D) **

"You're kidding." Levy whispered softly, staring at the Master in horror and shock. "T-This can't be though!" she suddenly argued.

"Though the evidence shows that this may be possible Master, I have to agree with Levy." Erza stepped forward.

"The past is repeating itself." Macao muttered from his table.

"Just like before." Wakaba agreed.

"I can't believe this happened before." Gray mumbled, staring down at his feet. Were Lucy and Laxus okay? What about the other guild members? If Gray heard correctly, Lyon had been taken as well. "Lyon." Gray whispered, feeling a small tug of worry for his other childhood apprentice.

Makarov let out a heavy sigh, knowing full well how his Children felt. This stress on this information was pulling on his heart, making it feel more like mush as the time passed.

It must have been at least three days since Kasey arrived that the Master returned with information of the 20 missing mages.

After alerting the Council of their discovery, Kasey and Natsu had been taken to every guild to prove the fact. Each time turning out the same. The smell was in every Guild in Fiore, and was weak, showing that the smell had been there for at least a month or two.

The Council instantly reacted to this and commanded for a meeting between all Guilds who had missing mages.

Once the Guild Masters were assembled, Makarov explained Macao on Wakaba's discovery.

30 years ago, 2 mages of each guild went missing. After that, the 20 mages were never seen again, and were still missing to this day.

At first, the information was unrealistic and confusing to the Masters.

Those who had been the Master's of their guilds for the period of those thirty years remembered the event clearly, but were surprised that they could not seem to remember who went missing during those times.

They knew for sure that thirty years ago, two members of each guild had gone missing without a trace, and were never seen again. A total of 20 mages, just like two months ago, were gone, leaving nothing behind.

What were their names? Why could no Master even remember a single one of those 20 mages?

Makarov couldn't even seem to put a name to those two youngsters that were in his guild 30 years ago. Though he could not remember them, he knew for sure they had gone missing.

How could they all remember that at least 20 mages disappeared 30 years ago, yet remember none of their names?

After asking the Council for a little more back ground on the topic, they came to the conclusion that, 'Yes, this has happened before'.

Shocked by this revelation, Makarov stepped forward.

"How can this be?" He demanded. "It is true that I remember as clear as the sky above us that two young mages, like Lucy Heartfillia and my grandson Laxus Dreyar, went missing thirty years ago. Yet I cannot seem to remember who those two were or why they were taken." Makarov declaimed. Other Masters nodded in agreement.

"This problem seems much greater then we first thought." Bob murmured.

Iwan Dreyar, the guild master of Raven Tail, rose to his feet.

"Iwan, where are you going?" Makarov demanded, glaring at his son.

Iwan smirked over his shoulder. "If what you say is true, and we weren't even able to find the missing mages that disappeared 30 years ago, then there is no chance of finding any of the missing mages of today." Iwan stated simple, heading towards the door.

"What of your guild members. Cecile Ida Shadow and Hikari Wantanabe? Are you just going to give up on them?" Makarov rose from his seat, angered by his son's words.

Pausing to stare at his father, Iwan chuckled. "Those two were weak willed from the beginning. Even if they are gone, my guild is still the strongest."

"Iwan!" Makarov boomed, shacking the room.

Bob quickly rose from his feet. "What of your son Iwan? If I recall correctly, Laxus was also taken."

Iwan, showing little concern, shrugged. "Laxus-chan has always been weak. It makes no difference if he survives or not." Iwan opened the door, stepping out of the room in silence.

"I suppose I shall take my leave as well then." Jose Porla, the guild master of the Phantom Lord, chuckled as he too headed for the door.

"You too Jose?" The guild master of Lamia Scale gasped. "What of Totomaru and Juvia Lockser?"

"Though those two are strong wizards, I cannot waist my time searching for them on a wild goose chase." Jose chuckled. "I have much more better things to attend to." With that, Jose left, leaving only eight of the ten guilds left.

Angered, the chair besides Makarov cracked by the pressure of his magic. "Iwan, Jose." He hissed dangerously.  
>"M-Makarov." The guild master of Mermaid Heel stuttered softly. "Please, sit down."<p>

Glaring over his shoulder, the energy around Makarov depleted. Letting out a heavy sigh, Makarov sat back down.

"I'm sorry for the trouble." He apologized, bowing his head.

"We understand.' Bob gave him a weak smile.

Nodding to his fellow Guild Masters, Makarov ushered for them to continue.

During the rest of the meeting, another search party was assembled and researchers were called.

Within this search party would be the Dragon Slayers of Fairy Tail, Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth.

Natsu Dragneel, Kasey and the newest member of the group, Elizabeth Fiore, would be the keys to finding the 20 missing mages.

After hearing of the news that there was a possible connection to the smell in her guild, Elizabeth Fiore, the Water Dragon Slayer of Mermaid Heel, quickly rushed to the Master's meeting. Elizabeth was a young teen, around the age of 15 with dark blue hair that cascaded down to her waist and light blue eyes that matched her pale porcelain skin. She stood at a good 5'9 with a very small and frail body tone.

These three would follow the scent of the kidnapper and hopefully track the missing 20 mages down.

During this time, the researchers would investigate the kidnapping of 30 years ago. Any information found would be documented and shared amongst the guilds.

In the end, everyone knew. They would just have to wait, and hope that some clue could be found.

~~~(20 Mages)~~~

The smell of wood smoke and roses filled the air as Lucy slowly opened her eyes. White and green colors swirled around her as her eyes focused.

Large green trees loomed over her, revealing only glimpses of the white sky above in the mist of Twilight.

It must have been early in the morning, just before sunrise.

Using her elbows, Lucy lifted herself up. Staring around the camp sight, Lucy saw her fellow comrades bundled up amongst the clearing.

Juvia, Sasha, Totomaru and Rain were scrambled amongst each other towards the end of the clearing. Sasha, snoring loudly, kicked his foot forward, smacking Totomaru's face.

Mumbling "Brat." Totomaru swatted Sasha's foot away.

Juvia was snuggled close to Sasha's back, using her new friend as a pillow of heat.

Amongst these four, Rain was leaning against the tree behind them, seemingly watching over the three younger mages in her sleep. Sprawled out over Rain's lap, Miyu snored softly. From time to time, she would kick her feet up, smacking Sasha's shoulder.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Lucy rose to her feet, stretching her arms high above her head.

Laxus had chosen a spot closest to the fire for his bed. Elle and Ruin, sharing the same idea as him, were rolled up in tight balls on the other side of the dying flames.

Looking towards the tall oak trees surrounding the clearing, Lucy spotted Ace, asleep on the lowest branch.

Towards the trunk of the tree, Hibiki had laid out a mat, just in case the young Gravity mage fell off the tree.

A few meters away from Ace's tree, WarCry and Hibiki were leaning against each other, unwillingly sharing a blanket.

Groggily, Lucy looked over her shoulder. Mamoru, Yuuki and Cecile were at her feet, sharing a blanket between them. Kneeling down, Lucy grabbed the end of the blanket and lifted it to cover Cecile's shoulder.

"_Deep in the meadow, under the willow. A bed of grass, a soft green pillow. Lay down your head and close your sleepy eyes. And when again they open, the sun will rise." _

Snapping her focus back, Lucy stood straight, staring around. A voice echoed through the tall tress, barely reaching Lucy's ears.

The voice was soft, and beautiful. It left a calm atmosphere as it echoed amongst the trees. Feeling a strong compulsion to follow, Lucy stumbled towards the voice. Stepping over Hinagiku and Lyon, whose arms were wrapped around one another, Lucy proceeded through the many trees. Glancing back at the camp, Lucy jumped over a fallen tree log, heading west.

If she recalled correctly from the night before, Hikari, Rufus, and Boyd were on the night watch.

"_Here its safe, here its warm. Here the daisy's guard you, from every harm."_

Following the voice to the far side of the camp, Lucy slowed her pace. As she approached closer to the source, Lucy came to a flat pasture. Towards the center, on a large boulder, sat Hikari.

"_Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you." _

Lucy's jaw opened in shock, not expecting to find the young fire mage in a place like this. Unable to come to words, Lucy listened quietly.

The words danced off Hikari's lips, enveloping the world around in her soft tune. Yet, Lucy could feel a deep sadness from Hikari's song.

"_Deep in the meadow, hidden far away. A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray. Forget your woes and let your troubles lay, and when again it's morning, they'll wash away_." Hikari abruptly stopped, whirling around, her hands burning red with flames.

Jumping in surprise, Lucy held up her hands. "Hikari?" she called softly. "It's me, Lucy."

For a moment, Hikari was silent. Then, her shoulders relaxed. "Lucy." She said sternly. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry." Lucy said softly, still shocked from the astounding performance. "When I woke up, I heard a voice…" Hesitating, Lucy continued. "I followed, and I found you."

Hikari frowned. Jumping down from the boulder, she stuffed her hands in her pockets. "Go back to camp. The others should wake up soon." She commanded.

"A-Actually. I can take your shift now. You've been up all night, right? I'll take the next shift, so you should go get some rest." Lucy suggested, stepping forward.

Hikari, thinking over Lucy's proposal, nodded. "Very well." Hikari began towards the camp, but paused when Lucy called "Um… Hikari,"

Looking at Lucy over her shoulder, Hikari ushered for the younger Celestial mage to continue.  
>"Is it all right that I ask, where you learned that song from?" Lucy inquired softly, hoping she wouldn't impose.<p>

Hikari stared at Lucy in silence, her expression cold and emotionless.

Realizing Hikari probably wouldn't wish to speak of her past, Lucy's attention averted down to her feet, regretting ever asking.

"My aunt." Hikari answered. Snapping her attention back to Hikari, Lucy blinked in shock. "I never knew my parents, and my Aunt raised me. She taught me the song since I was little."

Lucy slowly nodded, realizing that Hikari was opening up to her. "I-I see!" she stuttered quickly, nodding her head frantically.

Hikari nodded meekly before she continued forward, disappearing into the vast forest. Grinning, Lucy looked back at the pasture that led into more forest.

"So Hikari was raised by her aunt, huh?" Lucy thought as she stared towards the rising sun that enveloped the clearing in light.

~~~~~~B~~~~~

Boyd yawned, shacking his head wildly in attempt to keep himself awake. Leaning his back on the tree behind him, Boyd ran his fingers through his hair.

At the moment, he was stationed towards the North side of the camp, near the river. He had been there for the past 6 hours. Constantly passing through his sector, Boyd kept a strong visual for any signs of threats. If an enemy were to get past him, his companions could get injured.

That was something he could never allow.

"Long night." He muttered with a low chuckle as he leaned his back forward a bit, making it loosen the muscles.

His small smile slowly disappeared, leaving a worried frown.

"I wonder,…" he muttered softly. "How Tiny Cat is?"

**Flash back**

"Boyd!" a young 12 years old girl called, running after him.

Looking over his shoulder, Boyd chuckled. "Tiny Cat, what are you doing here?" he asked.

The young girls name was Tiny Cat Ward, Boyd's younger sister. She was 12 years old, and was Boyd's only family member. After the death of their parents, Boyd was left responsible of his younger sister.

"I came to see you off, silly." Tiny Cat smiled, pulling at her brother's sleeve.

Boyd grinned. "I see, but you didn't have to you know."

"I know, but I wanted to."

Boyd nodded at his sister's response. "Sorry I have to leave for a few days. I'll be back soon though." Boyd promised.  
>"I know." Tiny Cat chuckled. "But hey, make sure you finish the mission as soon as you can, and beat up a lot of bad guys for me."<p>

"Beat them up, huh?" Boyd looked ahead. As they got closer to the train station though, a 10-year-old boy stopped them.  
>"Excuse me, are you Boyd D. Ward?" The boy asked with a cheerful smile.<p>

Boyd smiled at the younger boy. "Yes, can I help you? Tiny Cat peeked out from behind her brother's arm, staring at the boy in surprise.

The boy was at least 4'9 with short black hair that was smoothed back from his face, showing off his bright white eyes. The boy wore a fancy black suit, with a dark red tie.

He grinned. "Perfect! I've been looking for you. I hear you're very strong Boyd. You are even able to use Equip magic."

Boyd nodded slowly. "Yes, that's true."

The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously, a wicked smirk spreading over his lips, revealing small pointed canines. "Then I welcome you Boyd, to my 'Game'." The boy suddenly lifted up his hand, a white beam of light shooting from his palm towards Boyd and Tiny Cat.

Quickly reacting, Boyd scooped Tiny Cat into his arms and jumped away from the attack.

"Boyd!" Tiny Cat gasped, clutching tightly onto her brother. Boyd landed, hissing at the boy.  
>"Who are you!" he demanded, placing Tiny Cat on the ground, making sure she was okay. Realizing she was not injured, he glared at the boy.<br>"I go by many names." The boy shrugged coolly, calmly walking towards them. "You may call me Teivel."

"Teivel?" Boyd muttered, equipping a sword to his hand. Holding his arm out to Tiny Cat, he hid her behind him. "What do you want?"

"You." Teivel answered, firing more beams of light shaped like spheres. Boyd grimaced, hitting away a few before he pushed Tiny Cat to the side, dodging the other way.

"Why?" Tiny Cat demanded, concerned for the safety of her brother.

"For my game." Teivel stated simply, suddenly disappearing from sight. Boyd gasped, staring around.

"Where-" he wasn't able to finish when Teivel suddenly appeared behind him, kicking him in the back.  
>"Gah!" Boyd gasped, stumbling forward and falling to his knees.<p>

"Boyd!" Tiny Cat called. Tiny Cat gasped as Teivel continued to strike at Boyd, who was too quick for Boyd to follow. Boyd growled as he was hit back once more, his whole body equipped in armor at this point.

Running forward, Boyd swiped vigorously at the boy. To not avail, the boy swiftly dodged. Jumping up, Teivel dove over Boyd's head, landing behind him.

Boyd growled in annoyance. "Why you-"

Teivel glanced towards Tiny Cat, who flinched. "Ah, I see we have a guest. Would you like to join the battle, little girl?" Teivel asked, a lollipop suddenly appearing in his hand. Sticking it in his mouth, he bit down, cracking it in half instantly. "I'm sure you're bones would break just as easily as this candy." Teivel giggled.

Tiny Cat whimpered in fear. "B-Boyd." She stuttered.

"Don't you touch her!" Boyd wailed in anger, a large hammer like weapon appearing below Teivel, slamming into his chest.

Slightly taken aback, Teivel rubbed his chest. "You hit me." He mumbled. "You actually hit me!" he gasped, poking at his own chest in wonder.

Shocked by the younger boys reaction, Boyd crouched down, ready for another attack.

"How fun! I was correct picking you!" Teivel smirked. "Well, this little play time was fun, but I'm bored now." Teivel sighed. Lifting up his hand, a large sphere of light appeared. "Good bye." Teivel suddenly pointed his palm towards Tiny Cat.

"Boyd!" Tiny Cat screamed in terror as the light was shot towards her. Scrambling to her feet, Tiny Cat tried to escape from the attack, desperately crying out for her brother.  
>"Tiny Cat!" Boyd cried out, running towards her. Diving forward, he pushed his younger sister to the side, away from the attack.<p>

"BOYD!" that was the last thing Tiny Cat cried out before everything went white.

The next thing Boyd knew he was laying in an unfamiliar forest next to WarCry, a fellow member of his guild.

Light drops of rain landed on his face and trickled down to the back of his neck. Feeling the ground below him, he felt smooth grass that was currently covered in droplets of rain.

How he had got there, or why he was there was unknown to Boyd. That didn't seem to matter at the moment though.

At first his vision was blurry as he stared at WarCry's sleeping face. "W…What?" he croaked, blinking vigorously. Boyd grimaced; memories rushing through his brain, making it throb painfully. "That kid…" he scowled, rubbing his head. Realizing what was happening, Boyd sat up. "Tiny Cat!" staring around frantically, Boyd desperately searched for his younger sister. "Tiny Cat?" Realizing she was not there at that he was in a forest, Boyd slumped back to the ground. "Tiny Cat." He whispered softly. Was she okay? What happened? Where was he even?

"Shut up." WarCry muttered, squinting his eyes open.  
>"WarCry?" Boyd asked, leaning over towards the dog like man.<br>"Boyd?" WarCry muttered, rubbing his head. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing? Where are we?" Boyd asked, helping his fellow guild member sit up.

"Hell if I know. The last thing I remember was being attacked by some cheeky brat." WarCry growled at the memory.

"Brat? Was his name Teivel?" Boyd narrowed his eyes dangerously.

'You know him?" WarCry scowled rubbing his soar neck.

"I was fighting him too." Boyd confessed, stumbling to his own feet. His legs wobbled a bit, exhausted for unknown reasons.

Seeing Boyd's struggle, WarCry held out a hand. "Careful there." He warned when Boyd almost fell to the ground.  
>"S-Sorry." He apologized. "I don't know what's wrong with me."<p>

"It's probably your legs." WarCry motioned towards Boyd's legs, which were slightly purple from the numbers of bruises on them. Staring at his legs in disbelief, Boyd gulped. When did he get these?

Had that kid really hit him hard enough to break through his armor and cause damage?

As Boyd thought more about it, he became aware of the fact that his armor was no longer on him, leaving him in his normal traveling cloths.

"Are you hurt?" Boyd asked, glancing back at WarCry, seeing similar bruises along his arms and face.

"I'll live." WarCry grumbled. Sensing the pain coming from Boyd's legs, War Cry called out to him. "Be careful now." WarCry said as he jumped to his feet to sniff the area. Walking to Boyd's side, he made sure the younger mage didn't fall over.

Boyd smiled gratefully at him before looking ahead. In front of him was a large mountain, which small trails of smoke were coming from.

"Hey." He announced, motioning towards the mountain. Gaining WarCry's attention, he pointed forward. "I think there are people over there."

Staring ahead, WarCry smirked "Well, lets get going." WarCry and Boyd began their descent to the mountain. After that they met Lucy, Laxus, Rain and Miyu. They explained why they were here, and showed them their letters, explaining why they were here.

Whether they wanted to or not, they had to stay and compete in this "20 Man Game". Boyd would not lose this. He was sure that Tiny Cat was still in their true world, and was alone right now.  
>He had to win this game and return to her!<p>

(End)

Boyd was snapped back to reality when he heard something rustle to his left.

Jumping to his feet, Boyd equipped a sword to his hands. "Who's there?" He growled, his Quatro Cerberus behavior getting the better of him.

Stepping out from behind a tree, Rufus folded his arms.  
>"Rufus?" Boyd gasped, his shoulders instantly relaxing in relief. "What are you doing here? I thought you were guarding the South side of the camp."<p>

"I was, but I saw some packs of beasts, and followed. I knew they were headed in your direction, but did not know if they would reach you." Rufus explained.

Boyd raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you use your memory make magic then to warn me?"

Rufus frowned, staring down at his hands. "My magic has felt weak lately. I was not able to get the signal to you." He confessed softly, looking ashamed in himself.

Boyd's gaze softened. "I see." He nodded. Frowning a bit, he looked towards Rufus questionable. "Wait, how long have you been here?"

"For a few minutes." Rufus shrugged.

"Why were you hiding in the shadows instead of just calling to me?" Boyd pushed on.

"You seemed very deep in though, so I did not wish to obtrude." Rufus answered.

Boyd folded his arms, staring at his older companion with a sigh. "Well I suppose I should thank you then." Boyd nodded, receiving a small nod back. Boyd was about to continue, but was silenced at the sound of a few growls coming from the near by bushes.

Ducking down, Boyd looked over the other side of the trunk of the tree. The branches of the trees shook violently as the ground began to shack. Rufus appeared at his side, glancing over Boyd's shoulder to get a glimpse of the enemy.

A few meters ahead, several large beasts began to emerge from the bushes.

"Oh no." Boyd whispered softly as more and more emerged. They stood at least 8 feet tall with dark red eyes and sharp white fangs. They had the body of wolves, yet pelts like bears. Their heads were round, with two large tusks leading down to their feet with the fangs.

At least 25 marched out from the bushes, heading south. Leading the way was a beast that was standing at a good 10 ft.

Luckily they were heading away from Boyd and the camp, but it was still a little too close for comfort.

The beasts were getting smart. Like them, they were gathering in groups. Small units of beasts were one thing, but taking on miniature armies were another.

As soon as Boyd was certain the beasts were gone, he turned to his companion. "Were those the beasts you spoke of?"

"No." Rufus said darkly, glaring near the trees. "Those were a different group." Rising to his feet, he looked over his shoulder. "This area has become unsafe, we must warn the others. They will beleaguer us if they venture too close to the camp."  
>"Right." Boyd nodded in agreement before the two dashed towards the camp.<p>

After sunrise, the camp was awake and alive once more.

"Gyah!" Hinagiku squealed, waking up to the sight of Lyon's sleeping face right in front of her.

Lyon's eyes snapped open in shock. Jumping to his feet, he held his hands up, preparing his Ice Magic. "What's wrong?" he demanded.  
>"Lyon you perv!" Hinagiku gasped, suddenly kicking the Ice mage in face.<p>

Lyon let out a cry of shock and pain, stumbling backwards, tripping over WarCry. WarCry sat up, instantly replying by smacking Lyon on the head.  
>"Watch where you're going!" he growled.<br>"Shut up! You were the one in my way!" Lyon snapped back. The two growled menacingly as they rolled on the floor, scratching at one another.

"Aww come on, it's too early for this." Rain whined, rolling over in attempts to fall back asleep. "Miyu, my legs are asleep, get off."

"Juvia agrees." Juvia yawned, snuggling closer to Sasha, who tried to inch away.

"Juvia, I'm not a blanket." He mumbled sourly.

"I don't want to get up." Miyu griped, wrapping her arms around Rain's foot. Rain replied by lifting up her foot, causing the younger girl to rise.

"Off." She commanded, shacking Miyu a bit. Miyu cried out in protest.

"Where is Lucy?" Laxus asked, staring around the camp for the missing Celestial mage.  
>"She was there when I went to bed." Ace shrugged, pointed to the spot by Lyon and Hinagiku. "I don't know where she is now though-AHH!" Ace yelped in shock as he suddenly fell from the tree, landing on the mat below.<p>

"I told you it was dangerous to sleep up there." Hibiki sighed, looming over his fellow guild mate.

"She must have gone for a walk then." Sasha suggested, sitting up, running his hand threw his hair, pausing when he ran into a few rats. Pulling at the strands of hair, he scowled.

"It's her watch." Hikari suddenly announced, appearing from the tree. "She's by the border."  
>"Hikari, how was your watch?" Miyu asked as the tired Fire mage stumbled passed her.<p>

"Get off!" Rain wailed, waving her foot around wildly. Miyu's iron grip didn't falter as she clung tightly to her older guild mate.

"Long." Hikari muttered before she flopped down near a tree, intending to get some sleep. Rolling over to her side, Hikari turned her back to the group, leaving them in silence.

"Very descriptive. You know, your remarks might just alienate your friends and family." Totomaru rolled his eyes.

"I'll eat your tongue." Hikari threatened in a soft mumble. Though she sounded half asleep, it truly sounded like she meant it.

Totomaru gulped a bit, closing his mouth. "Right then… what's for breakfast?"

"Berries, berries, and more berries." Mamoru answered, holding some blueberries towards Totomaru, who grimaced.  
>"Anything else?"<p>

"Not unless you want to starve." Cecile grumbled, stuffing a few berries into her mouth. Totomaru sighed, taking a few from Mamoru's hand.

"Ah thank you Ms." Hibiki smiled at Cecile as she handed him a few. "Blue berries, what amazing things they are!" Hibiki smiled, plopping one in his mouth.  
>"Shut up, you're too noisy." Ace wined, causing Hibiki to glare at him.<p>

"WarCry, Lyon, please don't fight." Yuuki called softly to the two, who were preparing to bring their magic into their quarrel.

"Don't waste magic!" Rain suddenly snapped, sitting up to glare at the two. They both flinched, lowering their hands.

They both knew what she truly meant by that sentence, and knew the repercussions if they didn't not listen to her warning.

"Yeah." Miyu mumbled, snuggling Rain's knee.  
>"I'm going to hit you." Rain growled down at her.<p>

Ruin and Elle munched quietly on their own berries, staring at the group from afar.

"I also have strawberries, if anyone wants them." Yuuki announced nervously, holing up a few.  
>"Where did you find those?" Hinagiku gasped, bolting to the spell caster mage.<br>"They're not too far from here. I found them yesterday near the river." Yuuki announced softly, clearly flustered by all the attention.

"All right, strawberries!" Mamoru cheered, running towards Yuuki at top speed.

As the group began to cheer over the new founded strawberries, Ruin slowly looked up at the white sky.

"If this isn't Earthland." Ruin glanced at Elle, who had begun to spoke. "Then where is this?" Elle stared up at the sky blankly, as if hoping it could give her some kind of clue to where they were.

Ruin was silent, as if contemplating how to answer such a question. "A world that is not our own. A world where the rules of ours do not apply." Ruin answered simply. Letting Ruin's words sink in, Elle leaned back on her hands, tilting her head to the sky.

"Do you think we shall ever return? To our world I mean."

Her answer was equivocal, despite Elle's persistence.

"The better question is, will we survive to see our world again."

Falling silent at Ruin's monotonous words, Elle continued to munch on her berries.

"Geez Laxus, slower bites." Hinagiku scolded as she watched the elder Lightning mage gorge on his pile of berries.

"Yes, you must savor their sweet flavor." Mamoru nodded in agreement, stuffing her mouth full with a few strawberries.

"You have no room to talk." Lyon sighed.

Cecile chuckled a bit, before her attention turned towards the vast forest.

Did something just move?

Staring intently at the bushes, Cecile narrowed her eyes. After a short pause, everything was still. Was it her imagination? Shrugging the thought off, Cecile looked back at her comrades.

All of them were grinning, momentarily enjoying the peace. Smiling at the sight, Cecile grinned.

Sadly, nothing lasts forever.

A cold shiver ran down Cecile's spin. Whirling towards the bushes, Cecile gasped.

Before she could react, something burst from beneath the brush, wildly rampaging towards.

Yuuki, seeing the beast, let out a scream of terror. The strawberries in her grip fell to the ground, causing the others to snap their attention towards the beast.

Hikari, awoken from the scream, jumped to her feet, scanning the area for the threat. Realizing it was heading towards Cecile, she scowled. "Cecile!' she warned

"Cecile!" Rain yelled as the beast lunged towards her.

Falling to the ground from the pressure, Cecile stared up at the beast in horror. Cecile froze, her senses in shock from the sudden attack.

The beast, similar to a wolf, loomed over Cecile, snarling. Dried blood from its latest meal clung to its jaw as it snapped its fangs together. It's dark black pelt lined with chains, showing that it was one of Teivel's many pets.

Realizing that it intended to make a meal out of her, Cecile smacked her hand to the ground, causing her shadow to shoot up, impaling the beast on the chest.

Howling in pain, the monster landed ahead of Cecile, prepared to lunge forward again.

"Sorry." She muttered. "But I'm not a snack."

"Cecile!" Miyu landed next to the older Shadow mage, kneeling next to her in worry. "Are you all right?" the others soon surrounded her, giving her the same look.

"I'm fine." She said assured them, stumbling to her feet.

"Sasha, Totomaru, get back." Rain commanded, pushing them behind the group.  
>"We want to fight!" they insisted.<p>

"Fight from a distance then. You can both do that." Ruin mumbled as they passed her.

Glancing at the eldest mage of the group, they sighed.

"Please Totomaru, Sasha, we shouldn't take the chance." Miyu begged softly.

"Fine." They grumbled, stepping behind the others.

The beast began to pace back and forth, trying to decide which mage to attack first.

"How did it get pass those on watch?" Hibiki questioned softly.

"Do you think something happened?" Yuuki gasped.

"Lets defeat this thing first." Laxus commanded, lifting his hand up. Lightning rushed to his fingertips, which were pointed towards the monster.

Seeing the threat, the creature crouched down. Flinging his arm back, Laxus prepared to blow the animal away. One blow, and it would be gone.

Things were never that easy though.

"Laxus-san!" Juvia wailed.

Laxus, realizing what Juvia was warning him about, turned to his left, where two more beasts, similar to the wolf in front of them, tackled Laxus to the ground. With his magic interrupted, the beast took the chance to lunge forward.

"Its an ambush!" WarCry howled as several more began to dive out from the tress and bushes, surrounding the team.

Mamoru gasped, running towards Laxus, who was currently pinned down by the beast. Waving her hand in the air, an odd red perfume appeared.

Using the wind around her, the perfume drifted quickly to the beasts, who without meaning to, inhaled.

"Hold your breath Laxus!" Mamoru commanded.

Following her instructions, Laxus closed his mouth. Staring up at the beasts, Laxus' eyes widened as they suddenly fell over, kicking their legs vigorously, as if they were dying from the inside.

Howling wildly, the beasts scratched at their throats, whimpering for the pain to stop.

Once he was released, Laxus quickly crawled away from the perfume, to Mamoru's side. Inhaling, Laxus gave her a weird look. "What did you do?"

"Flame Perfume." Mamoru explained, for once her expression looking serious. "It causes my enemies who inhale my magic to burn from the inside out." Mamoru let out a weak grin, chuckling a bit. "You okay?"

"…Fine." Laxus nodded.

"What the hell!" Ace yelled, jumping up to dodge one of the wolves. "What happened to Boyd, Rufus and Lucy? Weren't they watching the borders of the camp?"

"Something must have happened. Hibiki!" Elle yelled. "Try to get in touch with them."

Hibiki nodded, his archive appearing in front of him. "I need some time." He announced, glancing at the two wolves in front of him.

Snow and ice fell from the sky above, impaling into the beasts, smacking them to the side. Jumping down in front of Hibiki, Hinagiku and Lyon smiled at him.

"We'll by you that time." They announced, stepping in front of the Blue Pegasus member.

Nodding to the Lamia Scale members, Hibiki continued his work.

Ruin scowled as several more beasts, shaped like bats/eagles attacked from above.

"It's like a miniature army." Juvia gasped softly.

"Yuuki, WarCry. Formation C!" Ruin commanded.

"Right!" they nodded, running towards a few of the beasts.

Yuuki paused behind WarCry, her spell book appearing in her hand. "Sema ferla, itoko!" she chanted, as her eyes beginning to glow. A beam of light shot out from her hand, aiming towards WarCry's back.

Jumping up at the last second, WarCry watching the beam of light fly past him from below, hitting a few of the monsters.

Those who remained and survived Yuuki's attack were soon taken out by WarCry's tear magic. "Only through tears will people become strong!" he cried.

"…Eh?' Sasha questioned from behind Rain, who had managed push Sasha and Totomaru towards the edge of the clearing.

WarCry's tears began to take its effect as his speed and attacks suddenly increased. Slamming the wolves into the ground, WarCry howled wildly. "Bring it!" he called, running forward, Yuuki at his side.

_(Note: I'm not completely sure what Tear Magic does, since it was not explained in the manga. So I took a guess. Please forgive me if this is wrong.)_

Typing vigorously, Hibiki sighed in slight relief at the sight of two small dots heading towards the camp.

"Boyd and Rufus are fine. They're heading here now!" he announced.

"Lucy! What about Lucy?" Laxus screamed towards Hibiki, punching another wolf in the face.  
>"She's… oh no." Hibiki murmured softly.<p>

"What is it?" Cecile demanded.

"Everyone! Lucy's coming in hot, and she's got some company!" Hibiki proclaimed, closing his archive, preparing for something.

Realizing that Hibiki was preparing to fight whatever was coming their way, the others readied their magic.

"All hell is gonna break lose, isn't it?" Totomaru muttered.

"Got that right." Rain, staring at Sasha and Totomaru, deeply concerned, readied herself.

Behind her, Ruin and Hikari were fighting off monsters.

"They may have to fight, Rain." Hikari said behind the healer mage.

Sighing, Rain nodded.

"About time!" Totomaru cheered, laughing like a maniac.

"Don't push your self." Rain snapped harshly, causing the rainbow mage to flinch.  
>"Yes Ma'am." He sighed.<p>

**Something big is gonna go down next chapter! Anyway, I want to thank all of you who reviewed and hope you enjoyed this chapter. ^_^**

Special thanks to **sweetopal15** for your character Elizabeth Fiore. I'm sorry I couldn't add her to the 20 man game, but she will still be in the story. ^_^

_In those times of hardships, sometimes the only thing we can do, is sing our heart out. I want to believe that singing can help mend those bad and painful times, and lead our way to something greater. _

_Ambushes come at random, and are almost inevitable. If you panic and lose control during an ambush, you are sure to be destroyed. _


	8. Chapter 8

"EVERYONE!" a high-pitched cry wailed, jumping out from the bushes. Lucy landed in front of the group, breathing heavily.

"Lucy you-"

"I'm sorry!" she screamed. "I was followed!" From behind Lucy, the tress began to collapse from the large stamped of lion/rhino monsters.

"What the hell Lucy!" Ace screamed.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed, scrambling forward to cower behind Laxus.

"I… guess it can't be helped." Hinagiku gulped, positioning herself into a fighting stance.

"Come on!" Miyu groaned.

"I blame Lyon." Mamoru concluded.  
>"Why!" he demanded angrily.<p>

"Focus you morons!" Cecile snapped, smacking them both on the head.

Hikari let out a sigh of exhaustion. She didn't get that much sleep, and was a little pissed that her nap was disturbed. Luckily, there were a bunch of monsters here to help get ride of that anger.

"No point arguing now. Everyone, move!" Ruin commanded.  
>"Right!" everyone nodded, running towards the pack of monsters.<p>

"Guys! There are monsters coming from the…" Boyd, who suddenly appeared and was running towards the group with all his speed, froze at the battle scene before him. Rufus, just as shocked, grimaced.  
>"A little late for a warning! Get over here you morons!" WarCry barked.<p>

"What took you so long?" Ace snapped angrily, punching a monster in the face.  
>"S-Sorry!' Boyd yelled, stumbling towards the clearing, equipping a sword into his hands.<p>

"Boyd, Rufus! Juvia is glad you're both okay." Juvia smiled at them as she lifted her water into the air. Boyd, who pressed his back to hers, nodded. Rufus on the other hand ran towards Miyu, kicking a beast away with his foot. Miyu grinned at him.  
>"I apologize for not coming sooner." Boyd whispered.<br>"Don't be." Juvia insisted.

"Juvia, water!" Cecile, who suddenly jumped up into the air, demanded.

With one swift motion of her hand, a small ball of water propelled towards the younger Raven Tail mage. Opening her mouth, Cecile swallowed the water whole, gulping it down.  
>"Thank you!" she whipped her mouth, landing on the ground. As her feet touched the surface below, she swung her arm to the left, causing her shadows to encircle one of the beasts.<p>

Lucy snapped her wrist, firing her whip, which Rain had been so nice to make out of veins for her, at one of the rhino like creatures. Hitting the top of its head, it ran forward, charging wildly right into a tree.

"Heh." Laxus chuckled.  
>"W-What?" Lucy sputtered, surprised by his chuckles.<p>

"Nothing." He waved her comments off, giving her a small smile before he ran forward.

"Eh?" Lucy blinked, but quickly regained focused.

"He liiiiikes you." Miyu cooed from behind her.

"M-Miyu! We are fighting right now!" Lucy snapped angrily, her cheeks pink.

Miyu giggled a bit in response, flying forward to help Hinagiku out with 4 monsters that had surrounded her.

Happy to have some help, Hinagiku nodded up at the younger mage.

"Hey Hibiki, isn't there a way out of here?" Lyon demanded over his shoulder.  
>Hibiki frowned. "They are all blocked off. Give me a few more minutes to find a clear enough path." His eyes suddenly widened. "Oh no."<p>

"That's never good." Mamoru sighed.  
>"What is it Hibiki?" Yuuki asked.<p>

"I bet it's not good news." Cecile grumbled. Before Hibiki could answer their questions though, Miyu beat him to it.

"Everyone, in coming!" Miyu screamed. Ruin looked up just in time to see Miyu point ahead, where another dozen of monsters were making their appearance. Scowling, Ruin turned to her team.

"Everyone, start making a retrea-" Sensing something behind her, Ruin whirled around.

She was just a bit too late.

"RUIN!" Miyu cried out as the eldest mage fell to the ground by the fangs of a snake like beast, which had two arms at its sides. Hearing their youngest members cry, the others whirled around, just in time to watch their eldest member, their leader if you will, fall to the ground.

"You freaks!" Cecile, Boyd, and Ace screamed, rampaging through the monsters wildly.

Anger overwhelmed the group as their magical power burst out from their bodies.

Ruin cried out as the beast that was looming over smashed it's foot on her chest, making a sour 'crunching' sound.

Elle, who had begun to run towards her leader, froze at the sound. Staring at the beast and the screaming Ruin, Elle began to shack.

Without mercy, the beast continued its assault, pressing more pressure on the young Shadow mage's body.

"D-Damn it." Ruin gasped, trying to summon any ounce of her magic.

As the others struggled to their leaders aid, Elle remained in her position, staring.

"S…stop." she said hoarsely, her finger twitching in response. "Stop it."

Ruin's scream filled the air again as the beast began to crack the ground below her, causing her to sink slowly beneath the ruble.

"Stop it." Elle cried, her voice cracking. "I said,…" The beast began to lift its foot up, wanting to end it. "STOP IT!" Elle left eye, which was pink, began to glow. A magical symbol appeared in front of her body, showing that Elle used her magic.

"RAOW!" the beast howled in pain, falling back, it's eyes steaming. Rolling around in a frantic panic, the beast continued to howl.

Elle, realizing what she had done, covered her mouth. "Oh no.' she whispered, taking a shaky step back. She had done it again. Without meaning too she had used her melting magic. Right on the beasts eyes.

Ruin, seeing her chance to escape, rolled away from the beast wild spazes.

"Ruin!" Rain exclaimed out, scrambling to her feet to run to the Shadow mage. Rain was forced to stop her approach when several of the large tiger/bear mixes appeared in front of her. "Move!" she commanded, smacking her hand on the ground, causing a miniature tornado to shoot up from below the beasts, momentarily lifting them up into the air. The Tornado quickly dispatched though, leaving the beast to stand in Rain's way. Rain hissed in anger. Why wasn't she able to use her magic in this place? True, she had never been good at controlling her weather magic, and was only good at healing. This was a time though that she truly needed it, so why couldn't she! "Ruin I-"

"I'm fine!" Ruin gasped stumbling to her feet. She winced as pain overwhelmed her body, causing it to shack.

Her chest heaved heavily as she lurched forward, clutching at the hem of her shirt. A small trail of blood trickled from the elder Shadow mages mouth, dripping down her chin.

"B-But-" Rain stammered softly.

"I'm not finished yet." Ruin growled. The shadow mage, apparently impervious to pain at that moment, continued to fight.

Rain bit her bottom lip, wanting to protest Ruin's efforts.  
>"Let her fight." Elle commanded, though you could see in her eyes that she too didn't want Ruin in any more harm. "If she wants to fight…" Elle covered her pink eye, grimacing. "Let her fight." She whispered softly, pulling out her slingshot and clutching it close.<p>

The battle continued on, each second becoming more tiring and tedious then the last. Though each of the members here were strong, they could not fight forever.

"They just… keep coming." Juvia gasped, leaning her hands on her knees, hunching over for a moment to catch her breath.

"Keep fighting." Sasha said softly, chucking his sword forward, hitting one of the monsters in the hind leg. Crying out in pain, the beast fell over to its side, crushing two others in the process. Holding out his hand, the sword suddenly leapt into the air, flying back to Sasha's hand.

"We can't go on like this forever." Miyu argued, flying over the metal mages head.  
>"What can we do then?" Sasha glared up at her, demanding an answer.<p>

"Run." Mamoru suggested, suddenly appearing behind Sasha, pressing her back to his.

"Ha, where to?" Sasha chuckled dryly, fighting off monsters as he spoke. "We're surrounded…" he paused to slash a wolf across the face. "By these abominations, and have no shelter. We don't even have a plan."

"Plan?" Mamoru smiled weakly. "Do I really look like the type of person to have a plan? No way. Plans always end up failing. Strategies, those work a bit more, because they always end up going off course a bit." Mamoru jumped up, pulling out a bottle of her perfume to spray towards the wolves, which instantly bolted away from the smell. "We can't use plans at this moment. We need to think outside the box and with an open mind."

"I can't really afford to think like that.' Sasha grumbled, glaring around for any approaching enemies.

"You'll be surprise what you are able to afford in a world like this." Mamoru said softly before she dashed forward, perfume emitting from her body.

Sasha frowned at her comment, knowing that her words held some truth. "Juvia!" he called, wanting the water mages attention.

"Yes Sasha-kun? Juvia is listening!" Juvia momentarily turned her head back into a normal form to stare at her companion.

"Fight with me!" Sasha demanded, holding his hand out to her. Smiling at the gesture, Juvia nodded.

"Okay, Sasha-kun!" Juvia ran to him, smacking her hand against his. As soon as their hands connected, Sasha used his upper arm strength to toss Juvia to his left, just in time for her to kick an upcoming creature right in the face.

As the monster slide to the side, Juvia landed next to Sasha, nodding.

~~~Yuuki and Hibiki~~~  
>The two gasped heavily, struggling to continue this endless fight.<p>

"H-Hibiki, I can't go on like this for much longer." Yuuki gasped heavily.  
>"Neither can I." Hibiki admitted, whipping the sweat from his brow. "But we have no choice." Hibiki stuttered, spotting a monster just behind Yuuki. His eyes widened at the sight of it lifting up its large paw.<p>

"Yuuki-san, watch out!" After seeing the monsters intentions, Hibiki dove forward, pushing his comrade out of the way.  
>"Hibiki!" Yuuki screamed as she stumbled forward. Gasping in horror, Yuuki was forced to watch Hibiki get smacked in the head, causing it to make a small 'cracking' noise.<p>

Collapsing to the ground, Hibiki was still.

"Hibiki… Hibiki!" Yuuki waved her magic wand in the air, summoning the plants around her to distract the creatures. Using that as her chance, she ran to the handsome Blue Pegasus member. Turning him over, Yuuki cupped the side of his face. "Hibiki. Hibiki! Speak to me, please." She begged, touching the side of his neck to feel for a pulse. She sighed in relief when she felt one. It was soft though, so she would have to bring him to Rain, and fast! Looking up, Yuuki instantly saw Rain towards the other end of the clearing, still trying to get to Ruin.

Wait a minute though…. Where… Where was everyone else! "Everyone?" Yuuki whispered softly, scanning the area. Where were they? Had they been separated!

~~~Lucy, Laxus, Totomaru, Cecile~~~

"Everyone!" Lucy screamed, looking around frantically.

Laxus scowled as the monsters forced different members of the teams towards different sections of the woods. "They're separating us." He grimaced.  
>"W-What?" Cecile gasped, not believing her ears.<p>

"That explains why they attacked in such large numbers." Totomaru mumbled as the four, who had luckily escaped from the beast, stumbled through the forest.

"They can't be far. We have to find them." Lucy pleaded, constantly looking around for any signs of the team.

~~~~Lyon, Ace, WarCry, Mamoru, Juvia, Hikari, Sasha, Hinagiku, Miyu, and Hikari~~~~

"They are trying to separate us!" Lyon gasped, realizing what Teivel was planning.

"They are succeeding in that so far." Ace scowled, whirling around to face the monsters that had cornered them near the side of a large cliff. He wasn't even sure how this had happened himself. He remembered he was in the midst of battle, when he suddenly heard a scream.

Screaming was never good so he turned towards the sound. He was left to see the shocking sight of Miyu falling from the sky after being hit in the chest by a flying bat like creature.

Hikari had luckily caught Miyu before she could hit the ground and tried to find Rain, but she was no where to be seen. After that, more beasts kept coming and they were forced into the position they were in now.

Cornered by a high cliff and separated from almost everyone.

Not exactly a great day in Ace's mind.

Sasha warily glanced down the side of the cliff, realizing that below, at least 50 ft down was another section of the forest. "That's… a unrealistic drop." He mumbled nervously.

"Not unrealistic in this world." Hikari said calmly.

"Get out of the way!" WarCry barked, charging forward, tears welling up in his eyes.

Lyon and Ace followed the attack, trailing a few inches away from WarCry.

"Ice…!" Lyon screamed, smacking his hands together, small trails of ice hovering over his hands. "Lance!" Several arrows of ice shot out from Lyon's palms, impacting against the beasts, tearing their pelts.

Whimpering in pain, the three wolves Lyon hit fled back into the forest.

While Lyon was busy with the wolves, Ace and WarCry concentrated on the lion/bear mixes. Lifting both of his palms up, the ground below the creatures began to shack.  
>"Out of my sight." Ace muttered. The creature began to rampage wildly as it was lifted from the ground, and projected into the air.<p>

"Ace!" Mamoru warned, pointing to the wolf that had snuck passed Lyon and behind him. Whirling around, Ace held his hands out in front of his face, letting them take the hit from the wolves' teeth's.

Wincing at the pain of its fangs sinking into his feet, Ace motioned towards Mamoru, who stepped forward.

"Puppet perfume!" she yelled a wave of perfume emitting from her body. The perfume quickly filled the air, surrounding the wolf. As it's body stiffened, the wolves grip on Ace's arm loosened.

"Step back." Mamoru commanded. The wolf, as if like a dog, did as it was told and stepped away from Ace.

Clutching his bleeding arm, Ace nodded to Mamoru. "Thanks."

"My Puppet perfume allows me to emit the perfume from my own body chemistry, and control the inhalers movements." Mamoru explained.

"Now I know never to come within a 5 meter distance of you." Ace joked sourly.

"I wouldn't want to see you anyway Ace." Mamoru flicked her hand, causing her wolf like puppet to leap forward, attacking its fellow pack.

"Okay, we've almost cleared a path." Lyon called back to Hinagiku, who was standing by Hikari, Sasha, and Juvia, who were currently guarding Miyu.

After being hit by that flying bat/eagle monster, Miyu had fallen unconscious. Unable to wake her up from her deep slumber, Juvia carried her on her back.

"Okay." Hinagiku nodded. "Don't worry we are- eh?" Hinagiku paused when the ground below her began to crumble.

"The cliff is collapsing from the weight!" Sasha gasped as the ground around them shook violently.

"Get away from there!" WarCry screamed.

His warning was too late. The 5 members of the 'game' fell backwards, plummeting towards the ground below.

"Gah!" Sasha and Hikari gasped.

"Ace!" Mamoru called to him, hoping the gravity mage would be able to help.

Ace, quickly reacting, turning from the remaining 5 animals, holding out his palm. For a moment, his hand glowed, but quickly dispatched when two of the fives monsters swiped at his back.

"Gah!" he gasped, crumbling to his knees, his magic dispatched.

Juvia screamed. Reaching out she grabbed Miyu by the hand. The young water mage closed her eyes, holding Miyu close as they fell towards the forest below.

"HINAGIKU!" Lyon screamed running forward and holding his hand out to his fellow guild member. Barely able to reach her he momentarily grasped her index finger. Lyon was unable to grab Hinagiku's falling hand in time, and was forced to watch her fall.  
>"Lyon!" those last words were what escaped Hinagiku's lips before she disappeared over the side of the cliff along with Sasha, Hikari, Juvia and Miyu.<p>

"Everyone!" Mamoru cried.

-Yuuki, Hibiki, Rain, Ruin-

The battle was over for the moment, but things were not well.

Yuuki sniffed as she stared down at the unconscious Hibiki, who was currently laying his head on her lap. Softly, running her hands through Hibiki's hair soothingly, Yuuki struggled to hold back her tears.

Hibiki had protected her, when she did not deserve to be saved. Because of her now, he was hurt. Having taken that hard of a blow to the head, it would probably be a miracle for him to wake up. They were truly lucky to have not been separated from Rain.

"What do we do?" Yuuki whispered softly, her hands trembling.

"We find the others…." Ruin announced, leaning her back on the tree, clutching her stomach. "Give me five minutes then-"

SLAP

The sound echoed through the air, leaving the group in silence.

"Shut up!" Rain snapped, her hand still held in the air.

Ruin, shocked beyond words, held her now reddened cheek. "Rain." She mumbled softly, her blank expression returning. There was still that slight glint of shock deep in her eyes though.

"You idiot! Don't ever do that again! If you are hurt, you come to me. You don't keep fighting!" Rain screamed into Ruin's face. "I can't…." Rain's anger suddenly vanished, leaving only tears. "I can't fight at all you know. My magic is no good. No matter how much I try I can't control my weather magic. The only thing I can do right is heal. That's all I'm good for." Rain covered her eyes with her palm, trying to keep control of herself. "If I can't heal any of you, then what good am I? I'll be useless, and you'll all die. Then there… Then there is nothing I can do to save you!" Rain's knees suddenly gave out, and she crumpled to the floor.

"Rain." Yuuki whispered softly.

"Hibiki, Sasha, Totomaru, Ruin. You are all hurt. I can't get to Totomaru or Sasha, and the others might be hurt too. T-Though I'm sure Sasha would argue and s-say he wasn't." Slowly reaching out her hand, Rain grabbed Ruin's sleeve. "Don't do that… again. Please." Rain begged softly, hiding her face from behind her bangs. "Never again you… you stupid person!"

Ruin stared at the young healer. For only a moment, her expression softened. "I'm… sorry." She said slowly, unable to come to any other words.

-Laxus, Lucy, Cecile, Totomaru-

"Damn it!" Laxus snapped, slamming his fist into the wall. "Why didn't I… why couldn't I…?"

"Laxus." Lucy whispered softly, staring at her fellow guild mate. "It's not your fault. None of us could have seen that ambush."

"She is right Laxus." Cecile nodded. "It was something we could not avoid."

Laxus slowly looked back at his team, frowning. "I know." He muttered, looking away.  
>"What do we do now though?" Totomaru asked, leaning against the cave wall.<p>

After being separated from the others, the group took refuge for the moment in a small cave by a near by hill.

"We have to find the others." Lucy answered immediately.

"If we can't?" Cecile murmured, staring down at her hands, mesmerized by them at the moment.

"We will." Lucy said, determined not to give up hope.

After a short pause, a silence of dread and defeat filled the air.

How were they going to survive now? They could barely survive from an attack with everyone in the group with them.

So how could they possible to hope to survive while separated? True, Laxus and Cecile were strong and could easily handle themselves. Totomaru was hurt though, and Lucy was beginning to feel restless.

They couldn't go on like this!  
>"I want to go home." Lucy thought sadly, pulling her knees up to her chest. She gasped when she heard a cry of pain.<p>

"Gah!" Totomaru lurched forward, clutching the back of his shirt in pain.

"Totomaru!" Cecile gasped, running to the Phantom Lord member. Once she examined his back, she realized the pain had return. Without Rain around, the pain had begun to increase. "Your back.' she gasped softly.  
>"I-It's nothing." Totomaru stuttered weakly. "It'll pass in a moment."<p>

"It is not nothing." Cecile argued. "You need help."

"We have to find Rain." Laxus concluded. "With out her around, we are all 10 times more defenseless."

"They can't be too far. I'm sure if we looked around we would find them." Cecile nodded, rubbing Totomaru's back carefully.

Lucy frowned. "That's probably true but…"

"But?" the group asked, looking towards their young celestial mage.  
>"Both Hibiki and Rufus would have been able to contact us by now. Why haven't they?" Lucy announced her troubles, staring towards the mouth of the cave.<p>

"Perhaps their magic has run out. We can only wait I suppose." Totomaru said weakly.

"That's not what I meant." Lucy interrupted him. Blinking, Totomaru tilted his head. "The end of the third month is tomorrow." Lucy announced.

The group froze. Now they understood. This was bad!

Though most would find no problems when the months ended and started, you could not think that way here. The team had already learned what happened at the end of each month.

On the very last day of each month, all of their magic disappeared without a trace. For 24 hours they were unable to use any type of magic, and were defenseless.

"And with all of us separated…" Lucy paused.  
>"We are much easier targets now." Cecile concluded.<br>"That's…just great." Totomaru grumbled. "And that's not including the injuries were all ready have now. I don't know about you guys, but I saw Hibiki get hit by one of those freaks. He's probably unconscious right now."

"Then there was Ruin." Laxus sighed heavily.

"I-I think she is with Rain right now though." Lucy chipped in, hopping to make the mood a little better.  
>The cave was silent for a moment, before Cecile asked the question everyone was thinking.<p>

"What are we going to do about tomorrow then?"

Laxus turned to his fellow team mates, scowling. "We have to make some weapons."

"With what?" Totomaru questioned.  
>"Stones, sticks. Anything we can find." He concluded. Lucy and Cecile nodded, agreeing with Laxus' plans.<p>

"I will bring some stones in a second. For now though, I'll take the first watch." Laxus offered, slowly approaching the mouth of the cave.

"I'll join you." Lucy announced, running after him. Cecile and Totomaru watch them go in silence.

"Laxus seemed very concerned about Lucy's safety when we were attacked. Did you notice?" Cecile's worried expression suddenly changed into a wicked smile.  
>"Are you serious?" Totomaru groaned, not interested in any possible romance threads. "We just got attack by monsters, and the first thing you start talking about is their relationship? I swear you are too much like Miyu!"<p>

"What else do you want to talk about then?" Cecile pouted.

"Anything but…" he scowled. "Love."

"All right, fine." Cecile pouted. "…Did you notice the large interest Laxus has taken in Lucy lately." She smirked.

"What did I just say!"

Lucy and Laxus, unable to hear Cecile and Totomaru's conversations, stood towards the entrance of the cave. Silence filled the air as they stared towards the forest surrounding them.

"Lucy." Laxus said, his voice soft.

"Yes?" she looked towards him. Flinching in surprise, Lucy stared up at Laxus in shock. He had reached out his hand, placing it on her check.

"Are you in pain at all?"

"W-What? No, not at all." Lucy stuttered briskly, blushing madly. "I'm fine, really. What about you though?"

"I could be better.' He shrugged, caressing her check carefully. "Stupid."

"Heh?" Lucy blinked.  
>"Don't worry us like that. We were really worried. I thought they had got to you… before I could save you." Laxus' eyes narrowed, a deep pain in his eyes.<p>

Blushing madly, Lucy gulped. "I… I'm sorry I worried you."

"Just don't do it again." Laxus released Lucy's cheek and turned back towards the forest. Leaving Lucy in a flustered state.

(Boyd,Elle,Rufus)

"Rufus, stop it. It wont do us any good." Boyd said softly, grabbing the Sabertooth mage's arm.

Slowly lowering his hands from his temples, Rufus sighed. "I can't… my magic isn't working." he grimaced.  
>"You are exhausted. You must rest." Elle insisted.<p>

"I can't at a time like this." Rufus argued. "We were just separated from everyone. We couldn't even beat those monsters together. How can we possible survive with only a few of us?"

It didn't take long for all of them to realize that those stupid abominations were steering them away from everyone. By the time they did though, it was too late to stop it. Now here they were, separated from everyone.

And with the end of the month tomorrow, this wasn't looking good. Rufus was all ready feeling the affects of tomorrow up bringing.

"By learning from out mistakes." Boyd answered, snapping Rufus out of his thoughts. Boyd frowned as he walked passed Rufus to stare over the side of the cliff, leading down into another section of the forest. "We've seen now what this place can do. Now we learn from it. We hone our skills, and find everyone as fast as we can."

"Then, we find Teivel." Elle concluded.  
>"Exactly." Boyd nodded to her. "But first… we get something to eat!" he proclaimed.<p>

Elle and Rufus sighed at their equip magic user.

(Sasha, Juvia, Miyu, Hikari, Hinagiku)

Sasha winced, inching away from Juvia, who was currently holding a sphere of water over his wound on his arm, trying to make sure it didn't get infected.  
>"I-I'm sorry. Juvia does not know healing magic like Rain-san." Juvia announced shamefully.<br>"D-Don't be." Sasha insisted. "You're trying your best. That's all that counts."

"Damn it." Hikari muttered darkly, folding her arms to lean against the tree. She hissed in pain as she tried to add pressure to her broken foot.

After falling down the large cliff, the group was lucky enough to land close to one another. However, now they were separated from everyone else, and had no way of contacting them.

If that's not bad enough, some were minorly injured from the fall.

Sasha had been amazingly lucky and getting no injuries from the fall for when he had fell, his shirt snagged on a few branches, stopping him from hitting the ground with a hard force.

Hinagiku and Hikari however had not been so lucky. The fall was immense, and Hinagiku had barely survived. The only thing that had saved her was the large berry bush below that cushioned her fall.

Hikari had broken her leg by taking the fall feet first, stopping most of her fall by grabbing a tree branch as she passed it. That branch had slowed her down enough so that she didn't kill herself.

Juvia had been smart and gained no damage by turning into water, and was able to protect Miyu as well.

Miyu was currently asleep and leaning on the tree next to Hinagiku, who was guarding her from any harm that might appear.

"Lyon." Hinagiku whispered softly, looking up towards the clear white sky. "I hope you're safe."

"Hey, Hikari!" Sasha called.  
>Hikari paused from her thoughts to stare at the metal mage. "What?" she scowled.<br>"What now?"

"We find the others of course." Hikari scoffed, glaring towards the forest.

"What if we can't?" Juvia whispered softly.  
>"We will." Hinagiku smiled weakly towards her. "We…" looking towards the ground, Hinagiku frowned. "We have to."<p>

(Lyon, Ace, Mamoru, WarCry)

"Thanks Mamoru." Ace grinned sheepishly as Mamoru's healing perfume filled the air.

"I'm not able to use much of this perfume, so I apologize if not all your wounds can be healed." Mamoru said as her continued to wave her perfume around.

"It is fine." Lyon said softly, staring down at his hand.

Why couldn't he catch her? She was right there and he let Hinagiku slip through his fingers.

Damn it!

"Lyon, don't do beating yourself up now." WarCry ordered.

"But-"

"We'll find her Lyon." Mamoru assured him. "She's probably out there now looking for us."

"They all are I bet." WarCry sniffed the air, hoping to get any whiff of the others. The trail had begun to go cold though.

Lyon stared at his broken team, a small smile breaking through. "Right." He said softly, nodding.  
>"There's a smile." Mamoru cooed. "Now we just need your shirt."<p>

"Gah!" Lyon gasped, flinging his hands in the air.  
>"Come on! Really, stupid ice mage!" Ace exaggerated a groan of annoyance.<br>"Shut up!" Lyon barked.

-T-

"Master." A dark figure man kneeled in front of a black thrown, smirking. "We did as you commanded. They have been separated."

"About time." The young boy, known as Teivel, sighed. "Those mages are tougher to crack then I first thought." Teivel swung his legs over the side of his thrown, leaning his head back to rest on his hand. "Things were getting boring lately." He chuckled. "Maybe things will become more exciting, now that the game has changed. With it being the end of the month, I wonder how they will survive?"

**Well, here we are. I tried to make sure I didn't forget anyone in this, and included everyone in some way! There was off course everyone being separated, so that probably will be bad for everyone. Then of course Hikari broke her foot, Hibiki and Ruin were injured (But has Rain there to help, lucky them) and pretty much everyone will lose their magical power the next day. Not a good day for everyone, if I do say so myself. **

**Again, I thank you all for the support and I do not own any of the characters except for Teivel! **

_To lose everything that gives you hope and a chance to survive. It must be truly terrifying. To know as well, that you are useless when it come to protecting those precious to you. To watch them suffer, and you can't do a thing to stop it. It had to be the hardest thing to endure. _**  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 9

The sky was filled with ash, its once white depths covered in malevolent dark clouds. Smoke choked the air and flames burned across the land. The once green forests and meadows were scorched and burned until they resembled a piece of paper thrown into fire. The smoke covered air left a suffocating feeling with every breath, making the group more anxious to find their missing friends.

"What… happened here?" Boyd murmured, staring out to the barren waist land. After waking up that morning, the small group of three began their search for their missing comrades. Along their way though, they came across a horrid scene.

The forest in this area had been burned to the ground, leaving only a dark black clearing devoid of all life.

"A fire?" Rufus suggested, staring out towards the clearing. "Probably some monsters doing."

"When is it not a monsters doing?" Elle's soft voice rang out, barely a whisper yet easily heard. Boyd turned to her, seeing the exhaustion deep in the young girls eyes.

"Can you sense any of them?" Boyd's eyes remained on Elle as he called to Rufus.

"Nothing." The young mage sighed, pressing his fingers to his temples to try and activate his magic. "Nothing I am afraid. I cannot sense a single one of them. My magic…. It has left me."

"We understand." Boyd nodded.

"Shall we move on then?" Elle asked, folding her arms behind her back.  
>Smiling warmly at his teem, he nodded, "Yes, lets.' Boyd agreed, turning away. His two younger allies followed. "Oh, Elle." Boyd paused, looking over his shoulder at the S-class melting mage.<p>

Elle blinked, tilting her head at him. "Yes?"

Rufus continued forward, letting the two have a moment to themselves. Jumping over a few tree trunks that had toppled over, Rufus smiled knowingly to himself.

Boyd, suddenly feeling nervous, rubbed the back of his neck. Grinning, Boyd began to speak, "I just wanted to say thank you, for saving Ruin yesterday."

Taken aback by his words, Elle gulped. "W-What?" she stammered breathlessly.  
>"Your magic. It is truly amazing." Boyd continued. "I'm sure Ruin would have…. Have perished if you had not stop that monster."<p>

A tense silence fell upon the two as they stared at one another.

Boyd had come to realize something a few days after joining this 'game." Elle, the seemingly strong S-class mage, was afraid to use her magic.

He figured it must be because of how some would react when she used it. Having witnessed what Elle's magic could do when she melted the monster's eyes he couldn't blame her for not wanting to show that to others.

Looking at him, Boyd was surprised to see a sheen of tears covering her eyes. "You didn't think I was a… freak?"

Surprised by her question, Boyd walked over and placed a calloused hand on her shoulder. "I would never think that Elle. I actually thought you were pretty cool."

"Cool? B-But I…" her words sounded choked, as if she were holding back a sob.

Grabbing her shoulders, he pulled her into a strong embrace. "You have nothing to fear Elle. I understand now, how you must feel. I'm sorry you have to go through something like this. A girl like you shouldn't have to suffer through any type of pain."

Falling silent, Elle slowly grasped his sleeves, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Why…. Are you saying such things?"

"You deserve to hear them."

He wanted her to understand something very important though. He did not fear her magic, or think she was a freak for being able to use it. In all honestly Boyd found Elle to be a very gifted, kind, and beautiful girl.

Though he would never be able to say that to her.

After all, she probably does not feel the same way he felt.

She probably does not feel the same love… he feels towards her.

(Lyon, Ace, Mamoru, WarCry)

For the 28th time since waking up one hour ago, Lyon's thoughts returned to Hinagiku.

_How was she? Was she safe? Was she hurt? I have to find her quickly. She is probably talking without thinking right now. Is she smiling right now? _

All these thoughts shot through Lyon's head frantically. Shuffling behind the others, Lyon frowned.

"Lyon, don't fall behind now." Ace called back to the ice mage.  
>"Shut up." Lyon grumbled, picking up his speed.<p>

WarCry was busy sniffing the air ahead, searching for any clue of the others scent.

"WarCry, do you smell anything?" Mamoru asked, jogging up to the dog like mage.

"No." he growled, clearly annoyed at how slow it was taking to find everyone.

"Don't give up, mutt." Ace grinned, patting WarCry's head. "Ow!" Ace yelped, pulling his hand back. "Did you just bite me!"

"Don't call me mutt, stupid play boy." WarCry growled menacingly.

The two glared furiously at each other, preparing to attack each other.

"That's funny, last time I checked, you were one." Ace grumbled, shacking his now red finger.

"Last time I checked you were too busy checking your hair to even notice the difference between a beast and a mutt."  
>"Oh, so now you're a beast. Beasts should be locked in cages." Ace said as the two began to circle each other.<br>"Really?" Lyon sighed, staring at the two.

"Cages can't hold a true beast."

"Unless it's made of a impenetrable metal."

"The beast could always find a way, like digging under the bars." WarCry smirked.  
>"Unless the ground was also made out of metal."<p>

"Metal can be melted."

"You don't have a fire."

"You could never get me into a cage in the first place."

Mamoru let out a heavy sigh. "Girls, girls, you're both beautiful, can we get going now?"

Lyon couldn't help but chuckle.  
>"Shut up Ice breath!" WarCry and Ace barked.<p>

Mamoru chuckled at the two, and pushed pass them. Glaring at each other the two followed after the Parfum mage.

Lyon followed behind all of them silently.

The 29th time rolled around when Hinagiku's smile popped into Lyon's head. He couldn't help but sigh as he thought of her.

At the same time though, he didn't understand. What was this warm, yet painful, felling in his chest whenever he thought of the young Snow mage.

Lyon remembered the first day he met Hinagiku. It was back when he first joined Lamia Scale.

Jura had asked him and his team if he wanted to sit down and have a drink with him. Agreeing, Jura introduced Hinagiku to them all.

From what Jura told them, Hinagiku's parents had passed away on a mission when she was only 10. Having nowhere to go, Hinagiku joined Lamia Scale, hoping to improve on her magic.

At that time she met Jura, who took her in and offered to train her. In a way, you could call Jura her adoptive dad.

Hinagiku had been so sweet and hyperactive when Lyon first met her. She is still the same today, though she sometimes talks without thinking. That's what Lyon found interesting about her though.

He could never predict what would come out of that little snow mages' mouth.

"Mamoru, what's wrong?" Ace demanded. Snapping out of his daze, Lyon looked forward.

Mamoru had stopped, as if frozen. Her body was stiff as she stared ahead, eyes wide.

"Do you see an enemy?" WarCry guessed, trying to see what she was staring at.

Ahead the group of four was a river, which was only a few steps away. It was the same river that Rain and Miyu said they had appeared by. The river that never changed and stayed in the exact same spot, while the rest of the forest however constantly moved.

"T-There…" she whispered breathlessly.

Looking ahead, the three boys narrowed their eyes, trying to figure out what she meant.  
>"I don't see anything-"<p>

"By the river!" Mamoru squeaked, interrupting Lyon. "It's back! It's come to seek revenge!"

"What?" the three boys demanded.  
>"THE WOOD CHUCK!" (Quick note: Hey guys, remember in chapter 4 where Mamoru said she had to fight a wood chuck to get the firewood and used Ace as a human shield to escape? ….Well say hello to a certain little fella's comeback!)<p>

Mamoru jumped around and began to flee in the other direction.  
>"Wha-? Mamoru! Where are you going?" WarCry demanded.<br>"Oh my god." Ace, who was still staring at the river, gasped.

Lyon, who was deeply confused, blinked as something began to rise from the water.  
>"Is that a…" Lyon trailed off<br>"Wood chuck." Ace answered. "It's come back for revenge! I refuse to be a human shield again!' with that Ace booked it out of there, right after Mamoru.  
>"WHAT THE HELL!" WarCry screamed as the Woodchuck lifted up a bazooka from the water below, pointing it at them.<p>

Screaming, Lyon and WarCry fled from the river, chasing after their other allies. "I thought you were kidding about the woodchuck!"

"AH!" Lyon ducked down, barely dodging as the Woodchuck began to fire missiles at them. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"None of this place makes sense, just run!" Ace snapped.

They had to run; after all, they had not magic to defend themselves with.

The 30th time that day, Hinagiku momentarily appeared in Lyon's head as he ran away from an insane woodchuck with a bazooka.

_Hey Hinagiku, today a woodchuck with a bazooka chased me. Would you laugh if I told you this? The odd thing is though… though my life is in mortal danger here, the only person I can think about… is you. _

(Sasha, Juvia, Miyu, Hikari, Hinagiku)

Hikari sighed, not liking the idea of having to have a piggyback ride.

"Sorry Hikari-san, but there was no other way." Juvia, who was currently giving Hikari a piggyback ride, apologized.  
>"I understand lets just find Rain and the others quickly." Hikari nodded, frowning.<p>

"Guess I'm the lucky one. When I broke my foot, I instantly had Rain there.' Sasha blinked, now able to walk by himself. He still limped a bit but was at least in better shape then Hikari.

"I'm so happy for you." Hikari growled, clearly being sarcastic.

"Come on now guys, this is no time to fight." Miyu scolded, flying a few feet above her comrades. "We have to focus and find the others. Right, Hinagiku?" Miyu looked towards the young Snow mage.  
>Looking up from the ground, Hinagiku nodded, "Huh? Oh, yeah.' With that, she looked back at the ground.<p>

The group frowned at their young snow mage's attitude.  
>"Hinagiku-san has been so sad since we separated from the others." Juvia noted.<p>

"I'm not surprised. She probably misses Lyon the most though." Hikari nodded in agreement.

Sasha frowned. "How do you think the others are doing anyway? With out magical power gone, you don't think they-"

"Don't say such things!" Miyu suddenly screamed. "The others are fine!"

Flinching at her suddenly scream, Sasha nodded. It probably wouldn't help if he started assuming things. "You're right, sorry." He whispered.

"It's okay Sasha-kun. Juvia understands how you feel."

A grim smile graced his face. "Thanks Juvia."

Hikari scowled. "This isn't one of those romantic moments is it? Cause it is a little weird with me here."

"It's not like that!" Juvia and Sasha snapped.

"They liiiiike each other!" Miyu squealed.  
>"Miyu! It's not like that! We're just friends." Sasha yelled.<p>

"Suuure."

"It's true!"

Hinagiku stared at her Nakama from the sidelines, unable to smile at the scene before her. As much as she wanted to, the smile she so desperately wanted, just wouldn't appear.

"Lyon." A soft whisper escaped the snow mage's lips. Without him, Hinagiku felt no reason to smile. What if he was hurt, or worst? She would be lost if he disappeared forever.

A life without Lyon…. Something like that would so unbearable.

For the moment though, she had to try and smile for the others. It wouldn't help them any if she acted so depressed.

"Hinagiku!" Hikari's calm voice dragged her back to reality. Looking up, Hinagiku tilted her head. "Come." Hikari leaned back a bit, still holding onto Juvia's shoulders with one hand. With the other, she held it out to Hinagiku. "Lets go find the others, and Lyon."

She froze at the sight of Hikari's hand extending out to her. "Hikari…." Biting her quivering bottom lip, she could feel her hands shacking.

What was she thinking? She would be lost without Lyon? No, she wouldn't. If Lyon were to disappear, she would fell pain and lose like no other.

She would continue forward though regardless. Cause she had friends who supported her and wanted her to live. Friends that, even in tough times like her, were able to hold their hands out to her, and pull her forward.

She was sure Lyon would want her to continue forward too. So she would run forward, and find Lyon before it was too late!

She had something…. Something very important to tell him!

"Right!" a small smile pulled at Hinagiku's lips as she ran towards everyone.

(Yuuki, Hibiki, Rain, and Ruin)

"Hibiki. Hibiki! Come on, wake up." Rain's voice wavered, desperate to wake the Blue Pegasus member. For hours after healing Ruin's wounds Rain had healed Hibiki's head with the remaining strength she had left. However, when midnight rolled around, her magic vanished. Leaving Hibiki in the state he was now. Hopefully Rain was able to heal Hibiki enough for him to awake.

"Hibiki!" she tried again, shacking his shoulders.

"Rain, he-"

"Don't start!" Rain snapped at Ruin, who was leaning against the wall. Her black bunny plushie held close to her chest. As usual her expression was blank, showing no emotion pass those two silver orbs. "Come on Hibiki, open your eyes. You're always fluttering your eye lashes like the wind, so what's the problem?"

"Rain." Yuuki said softly. Reaching out to touch Hibiki's face. "Wake up, Hibiki." She begged.

"Hibiki come on bud. You can't sleep around today. Any day but today. Don't you want to find Teivel too? You can't do that if you're sleeping. Ruin will give you a kiss if you wake up." Rain encouraged, trying too old back some strangled sobs.

For a brief moment, shock and disgust filled Ruin's eyes, but she quickly scowled, showing she was not amused. Lowering her head, she stared at her bunny plushie.

"…W…what?" the being Rain was shacking mumbled. Letting out a soft gasp, Rain tilted her head. Ruin lifted her head from her doll, blinking.

"H…Hibiki?" Yuuki asked softly.

The Blue Pegasus member's eyes twitched and slowly opened to reveal clear black orbs.

"Hibiki!" Rain and Yuuki sighed in relief; overjoyed to see he was all right.

Sitting up, Hibiki winced in pain. "My head." He muttered, rubbing his temples.  
>"You did get hit pretty hard there. I wish I could do more." Lifting her hands out, she shooed Hibiki's hands so that she could examine his skull. "Today is… it's the end of the month, so I apologize."<p>

Suddenly growing wary, Hibiki looked at her with wide eyes. "The end of the month?" he repeated softly, almost a whisper.

"Yes." Ruin's answer came. "At the moment it is the morning. We still have several hours to go till midnight."

Paling, Hibiki looked towards his hand. "I see, and the others."

Rain frowned, avoiding his gaze. "They…" she bit her bottom lip.

"We don't know." Yuuki answered for her fellow Nakama. "We lost contact during the attack. We are still unsure where anyone is, or if they are okay."

Hibiki frowned, narrowing his eyes. Softening his gaze, he remembered the reason he had fallen unconscious. "That's right, Yuuki, are you unharmed?" he asked

Yuuki's eyes welled up with tears, realizing that even though he was hurt, he was still concerned for her safety.

"I'm sorry!" Yuuki sobbed, grabbing onto Hibiki's sleeve.  
>Jumping in surprise, Hibiki frowned, "Y-Yuuki, please don't cry." Hibiki gulped softly. "Why do you blame yourself though? You did no wrong."<p>

"B-But, it's my fault you go hurt." She sniffed.

"I did that out of my own choice." Hibiki argued, reaching out and patting her on the head. "Please don't cry for me."

"You can't blame her, you really had us worried there. For a moment, I thought I wouldn't be able to wake you up." Rain grinned weakly. Even as the words left her lips she could not help the feeling of worry that still loomed over her heart.

"Thank you Rain, for saving me." Hibiki, still comforting Yuuki, smiled at her. Grabbing her hand, he brought his lips down, giving Rain's hand a small kiss.  
>Feeling her cheeks heat up in surprise she quickly pulled her hand back. "Idiot." She muttered, clutching her hand close to her chest.<p>

After a short pause, the three looked towards Ruin, who was staring out towards the sun.

"We should move out now."

"Right. Hibiki, can you stand?" Rain questioned.  
>"I think so." Turning over, Hibiki placed his hands on his knees as he lifted himself up. Stumbling a bit, he smiled at his friends. "Shall we go my princesses?"<br>"Yup, you're fine." Rain and Yuuki sighed together.

(Lucy, Laxus, Totomaru, Cecile)

Ducking down, Lucy tightened the strap on her spear. Leaning forward she slowly peeked her head out from behind the tree.

Nothing.

"Clear?" Laxus whispered in her hear. Jumping a bit in surprise she nodded.

"Y-Yup, all clear." She nodded nervously, stepping to the side to let him though. Cecile and Totomaru followed after, smirking at Lucy as they went.  
>"Shut up." She muttered, shuffling forward.<p>

"Okay, lets move." Laxus commanded. The group of four traveled in silence. Lucy dared not speak. She was to afraid too. What if her voice was heard by more then just her Nakama?

After what seemed like hours, Totomaru spoke up.

"Do you think this place has an end?" Totomaru questioned softly.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" Cecile inquired, glancing over her shoulder at the Phantom Lord member.

"This forest can't go on forever, right? So if we just walked one direction for a few days, do you think we would reach the end?"

"We tried that once, remember? The forest moved though, so we were basically right back where we started." Cecile sighed.  
>"But…" Lucy trailed off. "We never actually saw the forest move."<p>

The group paused, turning to their young celestial mage. Rubbing the back of her neck, she continued, "Have you ever seen it move? It only moves when we fall asleep or look another way."

Laxus, recalling all the times he's stayed up the whole night on watch, nodded. "You're right. I once stared at the same spot for hours on end, but it was only when I looked away did it change."

"So maybe, if we do keep walking in one direction, and only look in that direction, we'll reach the end?" as the words rolled off her tongue, she knew she was trying to convince herself of the possibility too.

Rubbing her chin, Cecile contemplated the idea. "I suppose that could work. We have to sleep some time though." She pointed out.

"And we might get attacked by monsters and look away from out path." Totomaru added.

The idea was beginning to sound far fetched.

"Yeah." Lucy sighed. "Just a suggestion."

"It was a good one though." Laxus patted her on the head, making her blush.

"I-I'm sure it has an end though." Stammering quickly, Lucy avoided Totomaru and Cecile's knowing smiles.

Rubbing his neck, Laxus shrugged, "Maybe when we find everyone again, we can try your plan."

Beaming with joy, she nodded.

"At least we have some goal now." Totomaru shrugged.  
>"I thought we all ways had a goal." Cecile frowned.<p>

"Finding the others, getting out of this forest, finding that damn brat Teivel, and getting home." Laxus listed the goals of the group.

"Exactly." Cecile nodded, folding her arms.

"A goal for accomplishing those goals." Totomaru corrected.  
>"That doesn't make sense." Lucy tilted her head.<br>"Doesn't have to, lets move on. I think we should head…" Totomaru pointed North. "That way."

The group tilted their heads, "Why?"

A confused frown replaced his momentarily cheerful smile. "I…. don't know." He confessed. "I just have a weird feeling that we should."

"Oh yeah cause you ALWAYS want to trust weird feelings." Cecile grumbled.  
>"I'm serious. It's like something is calling me. It could be important." The young rainbow mage growled.<p>

Scowling, Laxus folded his arms, "Or it could bring our doom."

"We're are really weak at the moment Totomaru. What if it is a trap?" Lucy pointed out.

"I know that it could be a trap, I'm just saying that I have a feeling we should head in that direction." He said softly. In all honesty, he couldn't explain it himself. Something in his heart was begging him to head in that direction.

Lucy tilted her head. Staring out to the direction Totomaru pointed out, she couldn't help but feel that odd feeling in her heart as well. "Guys, I agree." She murmured.

"What?" Laxus and Cecile gasped.

"I think we should go that way." Lucy repeated. Totomaru smiled, happy that she was on his side.

"But Lucy-"

"Please Cecile. I don't know what it is, but something tells me we should go that way. Like, if we don't… something really bad will happen."

Frowning, Cecile glanced at Laxus. Laxus slowly frowned and shrugged. There was a short pause within the group before they all agreed.

"All right, we trust you two. If we run into a whole army of monsters though, it's all your fault." Laxus warned with a scowl.  
>"We'll take full responsibility." Totomaru and Lucy grinned.<p>

-T-

"Master." Once more, the dark shadow crouched down, staring towards the thrown the young Teivel was currently seated. "The day has come, what are your orders?"

Teivel slowly held up a few dolls that were hanging from strings. "What are these?" he asked, holding the puppets out to the figure.  
>"They are puppets master." the voice replied.<p>

"Correct." Teivel smirked. "What do puppets do best?" Grabbing one, Teivel played with the puppets shoulder length blond hair. "My, my, what beautiful blond hair and brown eyes your have Ms. Heartfillia." Teivel said in a slightly high pitched voice as he shook the puppet around, lifting on of his fingers to make the doll move it's mouth up and down.

"Do as the puppet masters requires." the man guessed as he watched his master play.

"Correct again." Reaching behind him, the young boy pulled out a small figurine of a older looking puppet. "When a puppet gets old and broken, what is it good for?"

"Then... it is not longer a puppet sir."

"Exactly. The only thing left, is a mindless slave." Turning to the figure, a dark smile pulled at his lips. "Bring 'them' out. I want to play with my puppets more." Teivel began to cackle as he pulled out several more puppets, similar looking to the current members of the 'game'.

"Yes sir." the figure smirked, disappearing into the shadows.

-The search-

Natsu lifted his head to the sky, sniffing the air for all it was worth. _Nothing. _Happy flew above his head, frowning up at the sky.

"Any luck?" a young girl behind him asked. This girl was Roselle Blood from Sabertooth. She was one of the many members of the Search party who did not want to give up hope on finding the 20 missing mages. She was determined to see her fellow guild members Rufus and Yuuki again. Roselle had long brown hair with golden eyes lights. Her eyes were very unique for one was blue and the other was golden. She was able to use Heavenly Body and Wind magic.

Some of the others who were sent to search for the 20 missing mages turned to him, along with Kasey the dragon slayer of Sabertooth (Who was currently looking for her friends Rufus and Yuuki), and Elizabeth Fiore the dragon slayer of Mermaid Heel (Who was currently looking for her fellow guild mates, Rain and Miyu). Since these three were Dragon slayers and were one of the main reasons this group was brought together, they had a very large role to play.

"Nothing." Elizabeth sighed, closing her eyes. "That strange scent is no where near this area."

"That doesn't mean it's not around. We have to keep looking." Kasey encouraged.

"Where?" some of the other search party members demanded. "This search is starting to turn up cold."

"Then..." Natsu growled.

The group turned to him, and were surprised when he hand became engulfed in flames. "We'll just have to turn up the heat!" Pausing, Natsu lifted his nose in the air. "I say... we head that way." Natsu pointed towards some mountains a few miles away. The mountain were not special in any way and blended into the land scape perfectly.

"Why there Natsu?" Happy asked down at his pink haired friend.  
>"I don't know, I just have a gut feeling. Lucy always followed her heart, and the difference between a gut and a heart isn't that big so I say we head that way." Natsu proclaimed. The group, after short thought, agreed.<p>

"Though... there is a lot of difference between a gut and a heart." Roselle mumbled under her breath.

"Lets head out everyone!" Kasey ordered. "Come on Roselle."

"Right!" Roselle nodded, running after her, determination rushing through her eyes.

"Heat it up, huh?" Elizabeth whispered softly, staring at Natsu's back. For some reason, she had a feeling if Natsu was with them, they would definitely find the missing mages. "Don't worry Rain, Miyu, everyone, we're on our way."

**Really quick, I want to thank Rosella6199 for the character: Roselle Blood! I'm sorry I wasn't able to add your character to the 20 man game, but she was added to the story! :D Don't worry, she, along side with the other members of the Search party, will have a large role to play.  
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**Guys, the time has come. Now I don't like choosing this sort of stuff, so I'm leaving it to you. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! Okay guys, so I want to ask you a question. I want you to pick your least favorite character(s), and your favorite character(s). (Also, please tell me why you do or do not like them) Now, this does not mean that the least favorite character chosen will die or the most favorite character(s) will die. I just want some info on what you guys think so I can START thinking of who is going to die. (Yes, some one is going to die in this story. It would be too easy if they all got out alive -.-') I ask that you send me a review on who your favorite/none favorite character(s) are through review and that you go to my profile and vote on the poll there. I also have a forum that you can go to and put up a vote. **

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I added a lot of new, and surprising fluff scenes! Tell me, did any of you see the BoydXElle thing coming? (*nudge, Nudge*) **

_When I stare into a flame, I get an odd feeling of hope and love. So that must mean, that one who represents flame, should also give you the same feeling. _**  
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_Always follow your gut! I've always followed my gut through hard times and I've always pulled through. In my opinion, following your heart and your gut is the same thing. Both are your souls' way of telling what you should do. So follow your gut/heart and you'll never go wrong!  
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	10. Imporant questions! Please read!

**Hey guys, I just have a quick question for you all. I probably should have asked this the last chapter, but I forgot -_-**

**Anyhow though, I suppose I actually have two questions now that I think about it. I ask that you answer… wait, SORRY, I have three questions and that's all, I promise. **

**I ask that you answer all three in a review so that I may continue this story confident on how it will end! :D**

**Question 1) (I've already asked this question, but if you can just state it again I would really appreciate it.) Who is you top 4 favorite characters? (And your reason why they are your favorite)**

**Question 2) Who are your 4 top LEAST favorite characters? (And your reason why)**

**Question 3) As some of you know, I have a DeviantArt account. kiyoxlucyxlaxusfans (Link is on my profile page ^_^)  
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**So my question is, out of all the characters in 'The 20 Man game" which would you like my to draw? I've come to love this story so much, and I adore every single character, except Teivel. **

**Now, if you want I can draw all the characters of "The 20 man game", but I ask that for the moment you only ask for one character. I will draw all the characters, just I need to know which one to draw first. Which ever characters gets the most request I shall draw that one. **

**So if you are the creature, or just a fan, of any of the characters, just send me a request!**

**Here are the characters you can choose. Again, only pick one. **

_(Of the 20 man game)_

_Lucy Heartfillia (Will be a little hard 0.0)_

_Laxus Dreyar (EVEN HARDER! But still durable… maybe) _

_Hikari Wantanabe_

_Rain Darl_

_Miyu Teryu_

_Totomaru_

_Rufus_

_WarCry_

_Mamoru Alia_

_Ace Frost_

_Yuuki Hayato_

_Sasha Ongard_

_Hinagiku Zeelmart_

_Ruin_

_Boyd D. Ward_

_Elle Dart_

_Cecile Ida Shadow_

_Lyon (Again, difficult.)_

_Hibiki (You really already know what he looks like, but if you insist then… sure I guess.)_

_Juvia (Her hair is weird but I would try my best!)_

_(Other characters)_

_Teivel_

_Roselle Blood (of the search party)_

_Kasey_

_Elizabeth Fiore_

**Yup! Here they all are. So please, send in a review to let me know the answer to these questions! Thank you so very much! :D**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello everyone. My name is Amelia. I am laxusXlucyfan's neighborhood friend. I've known laxusXlucyfan for a long time and even add some ideas and suggestions to add to her two stories. **

**I'm afraid though that laxusXlucyfan isn't feeling well. She wont be back for quiet some time. I'm trying my best to help her write the new chapter as fast as possible, but I can't visit her everyday, and a lot of days she just doesn't feel strong enough to write anymore. I can assure you all that laxusXlucyfan's life is not in danger. So none of you have to worry.  
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**You see, she has a very weak immune system and constantly gets sick and has to go to the hospital. At the moment it is not severe enough for a trip to a hospital but is still bad enough that she is stuck in bed. She is getting plenty of rest though and hopefully will get well enough to start writing the new chapter soon.  
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**She apologies for not being able to update this story as fast as she would have liked. She did however, write a few paragraphs of the latest chapter that she would at least like to share with you all. Her message was this "_Sorry everyone. I wish I could write more but I get terrible head aches when I get up for too long and my laptop is broken. So the only other computer in the house is down stairs. I am so sorry I can't update faster."_  
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**Thank you all for understanding, and for taking the time to read this.  
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**-Amelia-  
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_**(Ace, Lyon, WarCry, Mamoru)**_

"What the hell is that?" WarCry let out a soft growl, staring out from behind a large oak tree. Around half a mile ahead of them, something crawled around aimlessly, as if it was searching for something. **  
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Lyon did a quick take towards the creature, frowning. "It looks sort of like... a human?"

"Is it the others?" Mamoru asked hopefully, looking over Ace's shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of what ever everyone was staring at.

"I don't think so." Ace scowled, narrowing his eyes. "Look how it is walking. Looks more like a zombie then a human."

What he said made sense. Looking more closely, you could see that the creature did in fact stand on two legs like a human. Though it stumbled like it walked, the rest of its body looked limp. It was like a puppet without strings. The hair of tops of its head was similar to charcoal, its skin like rust.

"Think the others were turned into zombies?" Mamoru mumbled.

"Hope that one is Totomaru." WarCry snarled.

Lyon flinched, slowly turning to his dog like companion. "Should I even ask why you would want that?"  
>"So then I can give him a punch in the face!" The Quatro Cerburus member cackled. Mamoru gave him a swift smack on the head, letting out a sigh.<p>

"Honestly, have you ever heard of self control?" she glared at him.

Slouching forward, he grumbled, "You're the one who said it might be one of the others."  
>"This topic set aside." Lyon interrupted. "We have to figure out what that thing is, and why it is out here."<p>

"I'm pretty sure it is obvious Ice brain. To kill us, just like every other thing in this crappy forest." Ace folded his arms. Lyon peered out towards the human like being, ignoring Ace's remarks.

"I'm going to check it out." Jumping over the tree log he had crouched behind, the young ice mage began to make his approach.

"M-Moron!" WarCry snapped. "It could be a trap!"

Pausing to turn around, momentarilly walking backwards, Lyon said, "And if isn't? What if it's another person who got pulled into this game?" Turning back around, Lyon continued his approach.  
>"There were only 20 members moron." Ace wanted to call to him, but didn't wish to warn the beast of Lyon's presence.<p>

"But... maybe this one is from a different game." Mamoru suggested softly. Glancing at her, the two males looked confused, glancing back at Lyon from time to time. "Mages have gone missing many times in the past right? Well, what if this wasn't the only '20 man game'? What if there were others. That must mean there were other contestants right?"

"Though I understand where you are coming from Mamoru, I don't think that's the case. I mean, I haven't heard of 20 mages going missing randomly before in the past, have you?" Ace said slowly.

"Well, not in our time." WarCry suddenly interjected into the conversation. Snapping their attention at them, he continued. "I heard once from my old man. I was only little when he was talking about it with a friend of his. Around 30 years ago, 20 mages suddenly disappeared without a trace. No one knows where they went, or who took em'."

Meanwhile, Lyon had finally made his way to the human like animal. "Um... hey." he said softly, a little glad its back was turned to him. The monster paused from sniffing the air, realizing Lyon was behind it.

"So... if that was 30 years ago, then that must mean..." Ace slowly looked towards Lyon. "That thing by Lyon is... most likely an old contestant?"

The three went pale. They had all learned to trust their gut in a place like this, and a person surviving here for 30 years by themselves was impossible.

Mamoru began in a mad dash forward. "LYON! Get out of there!"

Whirling around in surprise, Lyon could only let out a scream when the human beast attacked.

**(Laxus, Totomaru, Cecile, Lucy)**

Lucy shivered, a cold feeling shooting down her spine.  
>"You okay?" Cecilia asked, tilting her head.<br>"Y-Yeah." Lucy smiled weakly. "Just had... a bad feeling is all." It was if something terrible was about to happen. Though it wouldn't come much as a surprise to her by now. Something bad always happened in this place.

"I'm sure everything will be fine." Cecilia patted her shoulder reassuringly. Nodding to her younger companion, Lucy trudged forward.

"Wait..." Laxus lifted up his hand, motioning for everyone to halt. Freezing, the group of three stared at him.

"What is it Laxus?" Cecilia questioned, scanning the area, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Laxus frowned, lifting his nose to the sky, sniffing.

"He's become the dog boy." Totomaru gawked, referring to WarCry.

"Well, he is a dragon slayer." Cecilia reminded him. "They supposedly have amazing sense of smell." Totomaru nodded, understanding a bit now.

"Do you smell the others?" Lucy asked hopefully.

After a short pause Laxus answered, "No."  
>Feeling disappointed she nodded. "I see. Is it an enemy?"<p>

Laxus stepped forward, looking confused. "No..."  
>"Then what is it? Spite it out man." Totomaru tapped his foot impatiently. Gazing towards the sky, which was white, Laxus turned to us.<p>

"It's sea water."

The group feel silenced, dumbfounded.

"Sea water?" Cecile questioned. "That... can't be right."  
>"Yeah. We're in the middle of a forest." Totomaru glanced around, sniffing the air himself. "Maybe the old sniffer is busted." That instantly got him a wake on the head.<p>

"I'm sure it is sea water." Laxus announced. Glancing to his left, Laxus began to run in that direction. "This way!"  
>"L-Laxus, wait!" Lucy called, running after him. Cecilia and Totomaru glanced at one another, deciding they had followed Laxus this far, might as well go a little further. Running after the two blond's, they quickly caught up.<p>

Running a short distance, the four reached a small grass-less clearing. Stepping forward, the four looked around.

"Yeah Laxus, this is definitely sea water." Totomaru muttered. With a quick flick of his hand, Laxus slapped Totomaru across the head and kept walking. After a while he began to run towards the edge of the clearing, abruptly stopping.

Seeing his reaction, Lucy followed him. As she approached him, she was suddenly over taken by the large smell of sea water. What she saw though, shocked her beyond belief.

Cecile and Totomaru were no different.

At the end of the clearing was a small cliff, leading down to sand. The sand was not what caught everyone's eye though.

In front of them was a large blanket of water, spread out as far as the eye could see. It's dark blue waves shifted neatly below them, down the cliff side.

"An... ocean." Lucy said softly, staring out to the light blue water.

"I can't believe it. It really is an ocean. This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder!" Cecilia gawked.

Looking farther ahead, the sky slowly began to change from white back to a light blue. "The sky over there is blue!" Lucy gasped.  
>Her three companions looked towards the blue section of the sky in shock. "She is right." Totomaru nodded. "What the hell does it all mean though?"<br>Laxus slowly turned away from the cliff leading down to the ocean below. "I don't think we're in a never ending forest." He folded his arms. "In fact, I don't think we are in another world at all. We're on an island!"  
>"And island?" the group asked.<p>

"We're still on our planet, our dimension! That brat Tievel has been playing us for fools this whole time. He made us believe we were in a whole different world to take away the hope of us every returning to our homes." As the group took in Laxus' words, it began to make more and more sense. "Whatever power that brat has it's moving the island, taking us all back to the middle of the island every night. That way we can't make it here, towards the end. We can escape his little game right here. Through the ocean." Laxus yelled furiously, pissed off. To think all this time they were just running around in circles. If he had just found this out sooner the group could have concentrated on escaping.

That way they wouldn't have been separated. None of them would have gotten hurt. Lucy... Lucy wouldn't have had to go through all this suffering.

"To think... all this time. We were on some island?!" Totomaru screamed in anger. "Oh that kid is so dead!"

"Wait in line! The first one against Teivel is me!" Laxus snapped.

Lucy slowly covered her mouth. "W...We can escape." she said softly, looking towards Cecile. A clear sheen of tears covered the young mage's eyes. "We can go home!"

Cecile grabbed her hand, nodding. "We can see our families and friends!" She cheered, wrapping her arms around Lucy for a hug.

"Laxus!" Lucy called to him. "We can see Fairy Tail again!" she smiled.

Pausing from his rant on what horrible things he would do to Teivel, Laxus glanced at Lucy. Seeing her tears and bright smile, he nodded. "Ah. We can go back." he smiled at her.

After a small cheer session, Totomaru blinked, suddenly bursting into laughter. "Luce! We were right!" he cackled.

"Eh?" Lucy blinked.  
>"Our gut feeling! Look where it lead us!" Totomaru grinned. Lucy gasped, realizing what he meant. It was because they had both suggested to go this way that they discovered the truth of their location.<p>

"Gut feelings!" she cheered.  
>"YEAH!" Totomaru pumped his fist in the air, causing Cecile to chuckle, apologizing for ever doubting them.<p>

Lucy nodded, but suddenly gasped. "We have to find the others! We have to tell them about this too!"

"How do we do that? Who knows how big the stupid forest is." Laxus questioned with a scowl.  
>"I guess..." Cecilia suddenly smiled. "We'll just have to send them a signal and hope they met up with us."<p>

The three glanced at their youngest mage, confused to what she could possible mean.

**I am super sorry if this seems rushed or short. LaxusXLucyfan wished to add much more to this chapter, and more detail, but just couldn't find the time to do that. So I hope this is at least a little satisfying to you all. **

**-Amelia-  
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	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys. Sorry I've been gone for so long. I've been having a tough time, physically speaking. I've been sick, but I'm getting better. **

**So I tried my best to write this chapter. I hope you all like it :D **

"Oh no no no .No way, not happening."

"Totomaru come on, we need you to do this." Cecile begged.  
>"Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea what will happen if this works?" Totomaru seethed.<p>

"We'll find all our Nakama?" Lucy guessed.

"And reveal our location to _every _monster, thing, and being on this island.' Laxus added.

Totomaru jabbed his finger towards Laxus, "Exactly!" he exclaimed.

"We know how to get off this island now though! We can't waist any time. Our Nakama are out there right now, fighting for their lives! We have to find them and tell them now before it is too late." Cecile argued.

Letting her words sink in, Laxus sighed. "How exactly are you planning on pulling this off?"

Grinning at him, she lifted up two rocks. "Fireworks." She explained.

Puzzled by her thoughts, Lucy spoke up. "Um… how are you going to make fireworks? We don't have any magic."

"We don't need magic for these types of fireworks." Cecile explained, lifting up two rocks. Cecile placed a few sticks together in the dirt and knelt down to them.

Pressing the two stones together, she flicked them a few times, trying to get a spark. After a few tries, the sparks appeared and fell onto the sticks, igniting them in hot flames.

The flame was small though, barely enough to keep even one of them warm through a cold night.

"A fire… hurray." Totomaru grumbled sarcastically.

"Oh hush. We're just getting to the best part." She rummaged through her pockets, pulling out a small cloth holding something unknown. "I figured this out a few weeks ago by a fluke accident." She opened the cloth up to reveal a strange blue power inside. "Remember those blue orchids by the river? The ones with the odd rainbow dots?" Cecile aimed her question to Lucy, who nodded meekly. "Well, if you crush the flowers up, they make this awesome explosive powder!"

"…Explosive… powder?"

Deciding to give her comrades a visual representation then explaining how the power worked, she grabbed a pinch full and carefully held it over the flames.

She sprinkled only a few sand like pieces of powder onto the flames, but those were enough to make a large spark, almost burning off Cecile's entire finger.

"Whoa!" Totomaru jumped back in surprise.

"Now, think about what this will look like if we use this whole bag full." Cecile shook the cloth a bit, smirking.

-0000**Boyd, Elle, and Rufus**0000-

Letting out a heavy sigh, Boyd forced himself to a halt.

"Boyd?" Elle questioned, looking towards her team leader. Giving her an apologetic smile, he leaned back against a near by stump, slumping down to the ground.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"What ever for?' Rufus lifted up his hat a bit, giving his senior a puzzled look.

"We're going in circles." Boyd pointed upwards. Following his finger, the two's hopes sunk when they saw the familiar peeks of gray and red stone.

"It appears we are once again at those mountains to the south." Rufus commented, looking up to the large bundles of rock and stone.

It had been the 3rd time that day they had passed that mountain. After finding the desecrated sections of the forest, the three had made their way south, finding themselves towards, as Elle named it, the monster heaven mountain.

All knowing it would be wise to avoid that area, they headed North. Within only a short time though, they again and again found themselves right back where they started.

At this accursed mountain.

"This would probably be easier if we had someone more suited to lead. I apologize for how useless I am to you both." Boyd said, leaning forward to run his hands through his hair.

"Nonsense." Elle folded her arms. "You've lead us correctly thus far. You're as good as a leader as any, if not more." She gave him a small smile.

Boyd felt his cheeks heat up at Elle's words. "R-Really?"

Elle, realizing what she just spoke aloud, sputtered, "Y-Yeah."

Rufus chuckled at the two, folding his arms.

"Then it is settled, Boyd remains captain. Shall we move on?" Rufus motioned towards the east this time.

"It was never up to debate to change captains in the first place, but yes, lets." Elle nodded to him.

Chuckling a bit, Boyd followed suit. Fore some odd reason, he felt like today wasn't going to be a bad day. Well, everyday was a bad day. However, for this particular day, he felt as if there was hope in the air. A type of hope he hadn't felt for months.

Perhaps, he would soon be reunited with his precious little sister, Tiny Cat.

How was she right now? He was sure the guild was taking care of her in his absence. Still, the thought of her being along worried him. His older brother instincts couldn't handle the fact that he had been away from her so long. Basically abandoning her at such a young age.

He had to return home and reunite with her as soon as possible, he had to!

-0000**Miyu, Hikari, Hinagiku, Sasha, Juvia-0000**

"You see anything?!" Hinagiku called up to the youngest member of their company, Miyu.

Flapping her wings rapidly, Miyu scanned as much of the forest as she could see without being spotted by the flying beast that flew over head.

"Not a thing." She sighed to herself, slowly sinking back down to her friends. "Nothing." She repeated to them.

"They couldn't have just disappeared." Sasha grumbled.  
>"We all did." Hikari reminded him, poking his forehead. "All in one day too."<p>

"Don't remind me." He scowled.

"Thank you for trying at least Miyu-chan." Juvia nodded to her.

Giving her older Nakama a nod, Miyu turned to Hikari. "I did see the river not to far from here."

"The river? Have we really come that far?" Hinagiku gasped.

"We did do a lot of climbing, though I would have preferred we waited till we had our magic back." Sasha glared at Hikari, who he had been forced to carry up the cliff side.

It wasn't fun, not at all. Actually very dangerous once he thought about it.

"Stop being a wimp." Hikari stated simply. "How far is it?" she aimed her question to Miyu.

"Only a few miles."

"Then lets start heading there. With any luck, the other may have stayed close to that for fresh water." Hikari nodded to Sasha, who got the message, and adjusted her on his back, and started forward. Miyu got the signal as well and took to the skies.

"Juvia thinks that is wise too." She had honestly always felt most secure around water anyway. The river would help her calm her nerves a bit, it always did in this place.

Hinagiku lead the group forward, looking up towards Miyu for directions.

They were close. She could feel it. The others weren't too far away! They just had to find them.

-0000**Yuuki, Hibiki, Ruin, and Rain**-

Yuuki's leaned forward, placing her hand on her knees for a moment of rest. "I never thought… I could run like that for so long." She breathed softly.

"Agreed." Rain gasped softly, folding her arms over her head to catch her breath. "We lost them though…" she grinned. Feeling the cramps in her sides die down, Rain lowered her hand. She froze at the sound of a sudden crack below her.

"Lucky for us." Hibiki nodded, leaning against a tree. He looked towards Ruin, who seemed unaffected by the suddenly 20 minutes of running they had all just gone through to escape a large group of beasts that had found them.

She was staring to the ground, using a stick to write in the dirt. It must have been a new battle tactic. All of them were becoming exhausted from the never ending mini marathons they were doing today. They were just running around, with no progress of finding the others.

"Alright, lets move on. We still have a few hours before the days end. If we can make it over to that pass, we may be able to hold off any other monsters till our magic returns."

Hibiki nodded. "I agree." Looking over his shoulder, he called to Rain, who had fallen behind. "Rain, we're moving on."

Rain stayed in place, her head angled towards the ground, as if she was inspecting something.

"Rain?" Yuuki called.

Slowly Rain looked up at them, her face pale, eyes filled with terror. "G-Guys." She stammered weakly.

"What's wrong?" Ruin took a step back towards her.  
>"Don't!" Rain cried out suddenly. "Don't come near me!" she warned.<br>The three looked at one another, then back at their healing mage.

"Why in the world not?" Ruin demanded. Rain gulped, pointing below her.

Dread fell upon them when they realized just what Rain had been so fearful of.

The ground below Rain had begun to crack, unable to support her weight. It must have been a weak and unstable part of the forest. Any movement could cause the ground to collapse.

"Guys." Her voice was hoarse.

"O-Okay Rain, don't worry. Everything is okay." Hibiki said soothingly. "We're coming to get you." He inched forward, staring intently at the cracks in betted in the ground. Taking a small step forward, another crack emerged. Pausing to glare at it, Hibiki took another step.

"Hibiki." Their healing mage called softly.

"Don't worry Rain… I'm coming." He said softly, taking yet another step.

Ruin and Yuuki stayed back, knowing that their added weight might cause the ground to completely collapse.

After another step Hibiki pause to look at his progress, Rain starting at him in terror.

"It's okay Rain I-" the ground suddenly shook.

"Ah!" Rain gasped, losing her balance and stepping back. The ground suddenly fell upon it self, a small grater opening up on a few feet behind the group.

"It's no use!" Yuuki cried.  
>"Rain! Run for it!" Hibiki screamed.<p>

Rain scrambled to get away from the collapsing earth, stumbling for her friends. The ground below her gave out, and she put the last energy in her legs to leap towards the edge, her fingertips barely grasping it.  
>"Hibiki!" she cried out desperately, hoping he would help her over the side before her fingers gave out.<p>

"Quickly, grab her!" Ruin commanded.

Rain could feel her fingers slipping off the edge, and all at once the ground was rushing up.

Hibiki dove for her, barely grasping her fingers.

"AH!" The cry for help barely escaped Rain's mouth as she plummeted down the hole.

"_**RAIN!" **_

-0000**Lyon, Mamoru, WarCry and Ace**0000-

"_Lyon!"_

The call reached his ears like a small bell. Like an alarm clock that was barely loud enough to reach his ear.

"_LYON!"_

"_It's no use! Just grab him and run!" _Ace's voice ordered.

Lyon's vision was clouded. He was surrounded by dark shades of black and gray, preventing him from understand what was going on. A small tingle of senses let him know there was something cold pressing against his back.

Was he lying against the ground?  
>"<em>Dammit Lyon! We told you not to go alone!" <em>WarCry growled. Something grabbed his arm, lifting him up to lean against a new object. A new presence.

Something lifted him from the ground, scooping his legs up from underneath him. He seemed to be floating in the air now.

WarCry had just lifted him onto his back into a piggyback ride.

"_Run….RUN!" _Mamoru screamed at the sound of foot steps running rapidly towards them. A sudden whiff of air smacked against Lyon's face, as if WarCry had just burst into a sprint.

"…g…" Lyon's voice gave out when he tried to speak.

"Don't talk." WarCry snapped over his shoulder. Lyon was silenced, leaning his head against WarCry's shoulder wearily. In moments he suddenly became aware of the situation around him.

Something warm was trickling down Lyon's forehead, down his neck and soaking into his shirt, making it stick to his flesh. His arms felt like they were ablaze with fire, tingling at every movement. His legs, like limp dead weights that just impeded their companions progress.

Something was chasing them from behind, running through the foliage like a beast on some blood lust rampage.

His mind suddenly recalled what had happened only moments before.

"_LYON! Get out of there!"_ Mamoru had tried to warn him of the impending danger, but to no avail. The human like creature had attacked him, causing him to scream.

The next thing he knew, he felt pain. As if the thing had suddenly cut open his gut and smashed open his head. With what he was feeling now, that could be a possibility, but he dare not look at his own body to check the damage.

After that, the others must have come to his rescue, much to his dislike. To be saved by the stupid mutt and hotheaded gravity freak… they would definitely hold that against him.

He cringed when the group suddenly angled to the left, causing his stomach to twist in disagreement.

"Ugh…" he gagged.

WarCry glanced over his shoulder after hearing the small sound escape the ice mage's lips. "Oh geez…" he muttered, his eyes widening at something Lyon was exactly sure of. "They really mutilated you… huh?"

"Sh…ut up…" Lyon snarled darkly, biting his bottom lip in agony. "How bad?"

WarCry looked ahead again, not sure if he should answer or not.  
>Mamoru to his left cringed in dismay. "You… Your stomach…" she began softly. "I-It looks like some sort of hole that will just suck ya right in." she joked, her face pale.<p>

"….gross…" Lyon commented.

Mamoru suddenly gave a small laugh. "Don't act so casual you moron." She scolded.

"I'm not a mo-"

"Look over your shoulder and try to finish that sentence." Ace interjected.

Lyon looked towards him, barely able to see Ace's expression through the trees and green that was rushing by. Slowly looking over his shoulder, carefully trying not to move too much, Lyon squinted his eyes.

Something quickly caught his eyes. A person, no… several people, were chasing behind them.

They weren't humans though… at least, not any more. Their bodies had similar builds to humans, with hair on top of their head and cloths. Their cloths were badly ripped and their bodies covered in blood.

They seemed more like zombies then humans anymore. One in particular seemed oddly familiar to Lyon. It was the creature that he had approached minutes before, the one that had attacked him.

He bit his bottom lip. "So they are… chasing us cause I revealed our location… right?" he muttered.

"Bingo. Now, about what you were saying before." Ace glared at him.

"I uh… I was saying that… Ace is a moron." He announced quickly.

WarCry's shoulder twitched as he gave a hardy chuckle.

"Shut up!' Ace hit his shoulder. He glared at Lyon again. "Just be glad we saved you after your screw up Ice breath."

"Right…" He looked towards Mamoru. "Thank you fro saving me Mamoru."

Mamoru covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. She nodded. "Anytime Lyon."  
>"Hey! What about us!" Ace snapped.<p>

"Thanks for carrying me Mutt." Lyon patted WarCry's shoulder, who just snorted.

Ace gritted his teeth in anger. "Maybe I shouldn't have pulled that zombie thing off you in the first place." He muttered, looking ahead.

Lyon looked to him in surprise. "It was you who did that?"

Flinching, Ace almost tripped over an upcoming branch. "Well… yeah." He shrugged.

"Aww." Lyon cooed. "You really do care."

"I will kill you." Ace growled.

Mamoru let out another laugh. "What an odd group we have."

"You just figured that out?" WarCry smirked.  
>"Well, yeah. It also doesn't help that we are joking and teasing each other while a hoard of zombies are only a few feet behind us." Mamoru commented. The group pause to do a quick take over their shoulder before looking ahead again.<p>

"…Huh, I guess you're right." Ace blinked.

"I guess it's just become natural." WarCry mumbled.

"That's sad." Lyon sighed in exasperation,

-0000**Rain**0000-

She awoke to the sound of her ears ringing, increasing her headache ten fold. Letting out a groan, Rain sat up to stare at her surroundings.

Looking up she couldn't faintly see the light of the surface. How had she managed to survive such an immense fall? She hoped she would live to figure that out, but right now she needed to keep walking.

Pushing herself off the ground she gasped when she found her body was not ready to handle her weight yet. She wobbled, and fell to the ground once again.

"Ow." She grumbled. Something warm suddenly dripped down the side of her face, reminding her of rain. Whipping it off with her sleeve she examined it carefully through the dim lighting.

To her dismay, she found that it was a thick coating of blood from an injury on her head.

Ripping apart her sleeve she placed the cloth around her head as a replacement for bandages.

With a heavy sigh, Rain looked up towards the opening. "Well, there is no way I can climb up that high." Biting her bottom lip, she looked around her.

Was she in some sort of cave? Behind her there was a single tunnel, and in front another two. Great, three paths, no light.

"EVERYONE!" she called up to the hole in the ceiling. There was no reply.

Had they left? If they had been attacked Ruin would have ordered them to retreat and come back for her when their magic had returned. Not to mention the jump down was too dangerous, even if she had managed to survive it.

Great, so she was stuck down here for who knows how long.

Rubbing her temple, she once again tried to get to her feet. Successfully making it this time, Rain scanned the area. Stepping forward, she cautiously looked towards the tunnels that were lined before her.

Something or _someone _had to have been responsible for making those. What though?

She wasn't exactly excited to find out, especially in the situation she was in.

No Nakama to back her up, no magic, and no escape. What a great day this was turning out to be.

Keeping on her toes, she slowly made her way to the first tunnel of the three, the one towards the very right.

Squinting her eyes, she struggled to make out any shapes or movements within the darkness.

There seemed to be none. Deciding that one was safe for now, she moved to the second one in the middle. Looking down, Rain swore she saw a glimmer of light.

Was that the way out? It could very well be! She couldn't see anything moving within this tunnel, lucky her, and could easily make a run for it.

Of course the idea of running towards the light at the end of the tunnel made her a little hesitant, but she couldn't just stand around and do nothing.

She had to take the chance. So she steadily made her way down the tunnel, constantly glancing over her shoulder and inspecting the small passage for any signs of danger.

Within time, Rain had begun to notice a sudden tempature change within the tunnel. The heat was rapidly increasing, causing a thin bead of sweat to roll down Rain's neck, causing her to shiver.

"What the…" she mumbled, whipping at her brow and pulling at her shirt, trying to cool herself down. "What with this?"

Suddenly the bright light intensified, showing she had reached the end.

As she squinted, blinking rapidly, her vision slowly cleared.

She gasped, covering her mouth in shock. She was in some kind of underground lava pit.

Searing heat burned her nose as the fumes soared upward in large pillars of smoke. The smoke tightened her lung, engulfing them in ash.

Covering her mouth, she let out a cough. A small rock trail lead from one side of the lava filled room to the other, safely taking her into another separate tunnel. She ran to the other tunnel, glancing dangerously at the molten lava.

This was definitely something she had not been expecting to find.

This was the least of her worries though, it was not the lava in which she had to fear at this moment. It was at the end of that next tunnel that would decide her fate.

-0000**Hibiki, Ruin, and Yuuki**0000-

Hibiki cursed silently under his breath, smacking his fist against a near by tree. "We shouldn't have left her." He scowled, his fist beginning to sting from the impact.

"There was no other choice Hibiki." Ruin sighed, her voice just as calm and collected as always.  
>"There is always another choice." He argued, glaring at her.<p>

"What did you intend we do then? Stay and fight? With sticks and rocks? We could barely destroy those _things _with our magic." Ruin hissed darkly.

"We left her to die!" Hibiki snapped.

"Rain is a strong girl Hibiki. To be honest I'm not even sure if she survived that fall. If she did I'm sure she is trying to find her way back up now. All we can do is wait."

"Wait for what? Till the monsters find her or us? She's on her own underground. Who knows what sort of monsters are down there. By the time we get to her she might already be… be…" His voice suddenly filled with pain and he trailed off, unable to continue the argument.

"Please you two." Yuuki said softly, her voice low, as if she had lost all hope. "No fighting." Her whisper was almost a beg. Seeing her friends in such a confused and scared state… it broke her heart. Even Hibiki, who had always been so calm, was having trouble with this whole situation. After all, they had left Rain behind… whou wouldn't be troubled?

Looking at her, Hibiki suddenly felt ashamed. "You're right Yuuki, I apologize. That was rude of me." He took her hand in apology.

Giving him a weak smile, she nodded. "It's okay, we are all… frustrated and upset. It's clouding our judgement and making us fight one another. It might be exactly what Teivel wants." She looked towards Ruin, who nodded in agreement.

"I apologize as well." Ruin leaned up against the nearest tree, staring towards the ground coldly.

The whole group had been feeling the affect of losing their healing mage all too quickly. After Rain had fallen down that large whole, the group wanted to rescue her as quickly as possible.

How were they suppose to get down without injuring themselves? The whole group injured or unable to move wouldn't help anyone.

Besides jumping there seemed to be no way down though. They had tried to call to Rain, but there had been no reply.

After 10 minutes of planning and trying to figure out a way down, their efforts seemed in vain. From the brush 13 more monsters arrived.

_10 eyes, _is what Miyu had called them towards their first few weeks here.

They were large circle like creature with yellow like, almost impenetrable, armor surrounding them. The only holes in the armor were for the mouth and eyes, which the creature had 10 of. There was an eye on all sides, making a sneak attack impossible.

They traveled through two bulky webbed feat covered in scales.

When they arrived, the group had no other choice but to retreat, abandoning their young weather/healing mage.

"Only a few more hours. It wont be long till sun set. Once our magic returns we can all head right back to that hole. We'll stay close to it the rest of the day so we don't lose it. Once my magic returns I can use my shadows to carry us down." She looked towards Hibiki, trying to sound as sympathetic as her monotone voice would allow her.

Nodding he gave her a weak smile. "Thank you Ruin," he took her hand lovingly.

"Yeah, no lovey dovey blue Pegasus stuff with me play boy. Ruin announced, pulling her hand away. Giving a small chuckle, he nodded.

Yuuki smiled at the two, but her gaze fell to the ground. "I wonder though… if Rain is okay and didn't fall unconscious from that fall… how is she doing right now?"

The group was still, the same question on all of their minds.

-**Totomaru, Lucy, Laxus, Cecile-**

"Okay." Cecile's hand shook with anticipation. "Are we all ready for this?"

The group had spent the last hour preparing a fire and the correct supplies for them to make a boat, or at least a raft, big enough for them to make their way home. Lucy had already even started on it. Hopefully when everyone arrived it would be done.

They wouldn't have much time though. Once this went off, all hell would break lose.

They had no other choice though. At the rate they were taking to find everyone, they might all be killed. They had to act quickly, or they were all doomed.

Lucy could only hope that the others would see the signal and come as quickly as they could.

Lifting the bag over the flames, Cecile gave a nervous glance towards Totomaru, who nodded.  
>"Be ready to run, this is going to be messy." Cecile chuckled softly, releasing the bag. As soon as her grip loosened, she burst into a sprint, ducking under cover.<p>

The others weren't far behind.

In a burst of light and explosions, the sparks of light shot into the sky, showering it with millions of small flower like lights.

Anyone of this island could see it. Perhaps even Teivel himself.

If he came to see what was going on well… Laxus and Totomaru wouldn't really mind that.

**I finished! Oh thank you! I finally finished. I have been writing this chapter for months and I finally finished. I'm so so so sorry for the long wait. Please forgive me. My body is weak, it always has been. It constantly stops me from doing simple tasks such as writing chapters for all you guys. **

**Don't worry though, my friend Amelia says she'll help me write all my chapters from here onward, so hopefully I'll be able to update soon :D**


	13. I'm back!

**Hey everyone! I'm back! My health is back to a stable condition and I'm not having to go get check-up and other things 24/7!**

**First off, I would like to thank all you reviewers for all the support you have given me. I really appreciate it. **

**Secondly, I want to thank Amelia Sandford, (she is also on Deviant art if you want to check her out) for supporting me and helping me through some tough times. **

**Thank you all so much and I hope you enjoy this chapter. **

He was in love. There was no other way to put it.

Whether this rapid beat of his heart was due to his thoughts on a certain Snow mage or the fact that several zombie like beings was currently chasing him, he wasn't sure.

All Lyon Vastia was certain of what that his there was a large amount of pain coming from his stomach, and that he wanted to see Hinagiku as soon as he could.

From his clouded thoughts, he felt War Cry swerve to the left.

"These things don't quit!" he barked in annoyance.

"Well, they're zombies, it's not let they will get out of breath." Mamoru mumbled.

"Cut through there! We might be able to lose them!" Ace commanded, pointing towards a large path that swerved in many directions.

The group followed Ace's lead, bursting through the path without a second thought.

They ran for a few more minutes, but they just couldn't shack the monster's behind them. They were running out of time. They had to think of something quick or they would be surrounded; and without magic, that wasn't good.

"One of you better have a plan." War Cry growled, shifting a bit to make sure Lyon didn't fall off his back. Lyon groaned in protest, the running already making his stomach ache painfully.

"Hey, I'm not a planner, I'm a anti-planner." Mamoru lifted her head up.

"Well don't look at me." Ace scowled.

**BAAM!**

The four jumped when large fireworks burst into the air in front of them.

The lights exploded into wide assortments of colors for all eyes to see.

From behind them, the creatures hissed at the sudden light, retreating away from the source. Wishing to escape the blinding light, the zombies high tailed it back where they came.

"Fireworks!" Mamoru exclaimed with a grin. "I love fireworks!"

"Fireworks?" Lyon mumbled to himself, pointing the sky in wonder.

"No, that's not it." Ace said softly. "It's more like… a signal!" Realization struck him.

"It must be the others!" Mamoru cheered happily. "Quick guys!" She ran towards the source of the light, the boys not wasting any time and following.

"…If we can see it though…" Lyon's words began to fail him when the world began to spin again.  
>"Then everyone else can too." War Cry concluded.<p>

"…As can anything." Ace muttered.

"Well this should be fun." Mamoru grinned.

"You're creepy." Ace hit her shoulder.

"You're creepy." She hit him back.

-000**Elle, Body, Rufus,**000-

"Do you all see that?" Elle pointed towards the sky, where a small firework display was currently going on.

"Is it a trap of some sort?" Boyd frowned suspiciously.

"I remember Cecile being in possession of explosive powder." Rufus announced, placing a finger to his temple by habit.

"Cecile?" Boyd gasped, "Then those lights are coming from the others. They must be signaling for us to come to them!"

"Why would they do something so foolish? Every thing in the forest must be able to see those too." Elle frowned.

"Perhaps the others found something." Rufus said softly.

"Or it is a trap." Elle pointed out, repeating Boyd's first guess.

"…I suppose there is only one way to find out." Jumping off the boulder, Boyd lead the group towards the lights.

-0000**Hibiki, Ruin, Yuuki**0000-

"They are so pretty." Yuuki smiled to herself, staring up at the lights in awe.

"More like dangerous." Ruin said coldly. "Those fools. They just revealed their location to everyone." She hissed.  
>"Perhaps that is the point." Hibiki reasoned, "Perhaps they have found a way out of the forest and need to find everyone as soon as they can."<p>

"What do we do then? Go near them? Everyone else must be heading that way as well." Yuuki looked towards them, tilting her heads.

"So will everything else on the island." Ruin folded her arms. "And lets not forget… Rain is still trapped underground. If we go near the lights we are sure to loose the location of that hole she fell in."

"Then what is the plan?" Hibiki turned to her.

Ruin looked towards her feet, calculating a strategy. "One of us has to head towards the lights," she concluded, "And another has to stay near the location to the hole so that it isn't lost…"

"I'll stay." Yuuki cut in, raising her hand. "You two head towards the lights."

"Yuuki." Hibiki raised his eye brow in shock.

Smiling at him, Yuuki said, "You two are stronger then me. Our comrades will need all the strength they can get."

"Yuuki." Hibiki argued, "We can't leave you here,"

"No it okay, really. I'm small too. I can hide easier then you too could." Yuuki smiled at him encouragingly. Ruin and Hibiki looked at one another.

She was being so brave. Surely she wasn't completely okay with the idea of being left alone in this _place. _

"Yuuki." They two began.  
>"Please, go." She motioned towards the lights that were slowly beginning to dim. "You don't have much time. Don't waste it arguing! Go!" she yelled at them.<p>

Yuuki never yelled. For her to do it now, she must have made up her mind.

"Yuuki…," Hibiki said softly, glancing at Ruin, who nodded, "I swear, we'll be back for you. Just wait for us!" The two turned to run towards the light, Ruin momentarily glancing over her shoulder to give Yuuki a nod of approval.

Watching her two companions leave, Yuuki's smile slowly fell. She turned back towards the direction of the hole, her eyes narrowed.

"…Rain. Please be alright." She whispered.

-000-**RAIN**-000-

"…Where am I?" Rain whispered softly as she moved silently through the underground tunnel. After coming to that room filled with Lava, Rain moved quickly to the next tunnel, hoping to find a way out of this crazy place.

As she continued forward though, a foul stench reached her nose. Reeling back, Rain covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve. "Aww, what is that?" she whined in disgust. Forcing herself onward to investigate, the young weather mage felt herself gasp at the sight before her.

She had stumbled upon some sort of… throne room? That must have been what it was. Large pillars lined the walls leaned straight down till they reached a few steps leading up to a towering throne.

Looking around wearily, rain gulped down her fear. With a shaky first step, she made her way slowly down the rows of pillars to the throne.

Who's throne was this?

Could it… possibly be Teivel's? Or was this someone else's?

When she reached the end of the pillars she climbed the few steps up to the throne, examining it carefully. She was surprised to find… dolls?

Different assortments of dolls and puppets littered the throne, taking up the space of whoever was suppose to be sitting there. Reaching out she picked one up hesitantly.

It had beautiful brown hair and glistening golden hair that travelled past its small shoulders. It's outfit was a white shirt with a blue skirt and a small whip tied against it's waste.

This doll looked just like…"

"Lucy." Rain whispered. Looking back down she could see that the rest of the dolls and the puppets looked exactly like her friends and her!

Why though?!

"_Well well, looks like we have a little snoop on our hands."_

Gasping in surprise at the un-familiar voice, Rain turned to the way she came. A man stood was leaning against the wall on the other side of the room casually. "_Hello love."_ He greeted.

Rain frowned, subconsciously squeezing the Lucy doll tightly in her grip.

"_I would be careful with that doll now. Master Teivel wouldn't be very pleased to know you broke on of his little toys."_ The man smirked.

"Who-" Before she could utter a word, the man, who had been all the way across the room a second ago, was now in front of her.

Grabbing her chin, he lifted her up to look into her eyes.

Rain squeaked in surprise, not expecting the sudden approach, but couldn't seem to pull away.  
>"<em>My, my, what a cute one we have here. What is your name love<em>?" He mused.

Blinking wildly, Rain narrowed her eyes and forced herself to yank her chin away. Stumbling back, she glared at the stranger.

"_Oh, feisty. I like that in a women_." The man shook his finger at her, smirking.

"Who are you?" Rain kept her eyes on him as he began to circle her.

"_Now that is rude love. You can't ask someone's name before giving your own, plus… I asked you first_."

Holding the Lucy doll close to her chest, Rain bit her bottom lip. "…Rain… Rain Darl."

"_Rain."_ The man repeated, letting the name echo through the room. Rain shivered at the sound of it. "_I like that. It's gentle and welcoming, but can be loud and frightening._"

"Alright… I told you who I am, now return the greeting." Rain motioned to him.

"_Oh right_." The stranger nodded. "_The name is Emil Frain, at your service."_

-000- **Lucy, Laxus, Totomaru, Cecile**-000-

"Alright, we sent out the signal." Totomaru nodded. "…Now what?"

"We wait." Laxus answered.

"Then what?"

"…We wait more?' Cecile guessed.

"Okay, then what?"

"We… make sure everyone is okay." Lucy lifted her finger at the idea.

Totomaru frowned at them. "Okay… I'm starting to get the feeling that we have no plan what so ever and are just making this up as we go."

"You just realized that?" Laxus smirked.

"Oh… oh great." The rainbow fire mage sighed, slouching forward to rest. "Call me when our death comes."  
>"Everything will work out Totomaru." Cecilie smirked.<br>"How do you know?" He looked up at her, surprising her by the seriousness in his voice. "How do you know everything will work out and we'll survive this?"

Stunned, Cecile blinked.  
>"How do you know?"<br>"…I don't." she admitted with a frown. "…But if I don't have hope that we will, then we will loss this 'game' instantly." The young shadow mage looked towards the skies.

Lowering his head, Totomaru said nothing. "…Hope." He mumbled. Rising to his feet his dusted off his knees. "Then is that the plan?"  
>Lucy frowned. "Is what the plan?"<p>

"Have hope." Totomaru smiled over his shoulder at her.

"…Yeah. That's the plan." Lucy grinned.

"Well, I'm game." A new voice spoke up from the bushes. The four companions snapped into defensives stances, ready for anything come their way.

Narrowing her eyes, Lucy's shoulders relaxed at the familiar looking form floating a little bit in front of them. Demon wings and curly hair were the first things she saw.

Lowering her hand, Lucy grinned widely. "Miyu!" she cheered.

Rushing forward, Miyu leapt into Lucy's arms. "Lucy!"

With a cry of joy, Lucy scooped Miyu up, twirling her in her arms. "You're okay! You're okay!"

Miyu hugged Lucy tightly, nodding. "We all are!" pointing back the direction she came, the group smiled at the sight of Hikari, Sasha, Hinagiku and Juvia appearing from the bushes.

"Everyone!" Cecile and Totomaru cheered in unison, rushing forward to meet their friends.

"You're all okay." Cecile wrapped her arms around Juvia and Hinagiku, who happily hugged her back.  
>"Sort of." Hikari grumbled, still riding on Sasha's back since she could not walk.<p>

"What happened?" Laxus looked to her.

"Fell off the side of a cliff, broke my ankle on the fall." Hikari answered.

"Okay, but why?" Totomaru frowned.

Hikari gave him a blank look. "…Because I fell off the side of the cliff."

"No, not that." Totomaru raised his hand. "If you broke you're ankle, why is the guy who sprained his ankle not too long ago carrying you?"

The group paused, also wondering the same question.

Sasha blinked, glancing over his shoulder at Hikari, who stared at him.

"…Because…"he couldn't think of an answer.

"Morons." Laxus sighed.

"Here, give her to me." Totmaru ordered.  
>"Whoa, whoa, and handing her off to the guy who hurt his back not too long ago as well is a better option?" Hinagiku stepped forward to stop them.<p>

"She has a good point." Hikari nodded in agreement.

"Juvia thinks it would be most unwise Totomaru." Juvia spoke up softly.

"Yeah, first this idiots set off some fireworks, then sasha is carrying Hikari when he really shouldn't, and now Totmaru wants to give it a go? We really aren't planning any of this out well." Hinagiku sighed.

"Who said we had a plan to begin with?" Cecile looked at her with a blank face.

With a huff, Totomaru nodded. "Alright then, Laxus can carry her."

Laxus shrugged, stepping forward to complete the switch off. When Hikari was successfully on his back, he nodded. "How many are here?"  
>Lucy turned to the group, counting. "There is Totomaru, Cecile, Miyu, Hinagiku, Sasha, Juvia, Hikari, you and me. So nine." She announced.<p>

"We're still missing 11."

"…You think they are okay?" Hinagiku asked softly.

"Juvia is most troubled as well." Juvia frowned.  
>"Of course they are alright." Hikari narrowed her eyes as she stared at the forest, hoping her comrades would come bursting through those trees any minute now.<p>

Becoming silent, the nine companions listened carefully to any sound made before them.

Miyu perked up a bit, looking from left to right.  
>"What is it Miyu?" Lucy asked.<br>"…I hear something." She whispered softly. The group listened intently, hoping to hear what the young (Blah) mage was hearing.  
>"What is it?" Sasha glanced towards her.<p>

"…Screaming…" Miyu's eyes grew wide with fear. "And it is heading this way!"

The group jumped when only a few seconds later, screaming could be heard.  
>"…ahhhhHHHHHHHHHH!" In front of them, the tree's began to shack, something large was heading straight at them. When it got close enough, the group gasped to see Elle, Boyd, and Rufus scrambling towards them wildly.<p>

"Guys!" Hinagiku grinned. She instantly frowned to see their three missing friend sprinting towards them, their eyes wild with fear.

"Hey guys! Bye guys!" They screamed as they rushed pass them.  
>"Elle! Boyd! Rufus! What are you-?" Cecile was interrupted when something barreled out of the forest.<p>

"HOLY-" Totomaru screamed in shock.

"Watch out!" Laxus screamed as they all ducked out of the way to let the thing pass.

A large Rhino with 16 eyes, eight on each side of it's face, and sharp canines came charging out of the forest, following after Boyd, Elle, and Rufus angrily.

"Guys!" Totomaru jumped to his feet and ran after them all.

"This is why you should watch were you step Boyd!" Rufus screamed at their groups leader.  
>"I didn't mean to step into it's nest!" Boyd yelled back.<br>"Is this really the time to be discussing this?!" elle snapped at the both of them as the neared the cliff's edge.

Wait a minute…

The all looked forward in surprise.

_THERE IS A CLIFF?!_

"AHHH!" They all screamed again. Boyd looked towards Rufus shoving him ruffle into a passing bush. Crying out in shock, Rufus dove head first into the bushes, the monster unknowingly passing him.

"Boyd what are you-" Elle's eyes flashed with fear when she saw him smile at her.

"You have to make it out of here." He breathed out, reaching out.  
>"Boyd!" Elle shrieked when she shoved her ruffly, making her topple to the ground. From the speed she was running the fall made her roll, spinning all the way to slam into a near by tree.<p>

Rubbing her head when it went a little fuzzy at impact, she looked up to see Boyd nearing the cliff edge.

"Come on you big monster!" Boyd screamed to the thing over his shoulder. Angry steam came out of the monster's nose as it charged Boyd. Stopping and whirling around, the (blah) mage met the Rhino's horns straight on, using his hands to attempt to stop it.

There was too much momentum in the Rhino's charge though and Boyd was unable to stop them from moving forward, causing them both to fall over the cliff's edge.

"Ahh!" Boyd cried out.  
>"BOYD!" Elle screamed in shock as the two disappeared over the edge. Scrambling forward, Elle rushed to look over the edge just in time to see the monster disappear into the water's below.<p>

"Oh god." Lucy scrambled to stand next to Elle, covering her mouth.

"No!" Hinagiku cried out, unable to spot Boyd within the waves.  
>"Boyd! Boyd!" Elle called repeatedly, her voice cracking from her screams. "Boyd-!"<p>

"H-Here." The group gasped. Stunned, the 11 mages leaned a little closer over the edge, barely able to see what looked like to be a person hanging by the vines that lined the edge of the cliff wall.  
>"Boyd?!" Sasha gawked.<p>

"Yeah… can someone help me up please?" Boyd grinned up at them.

"You… You dork!" Cecile laughed as Juvia and Rufus grabbed a few extra vines to toss down to him. When Boyd had himself safely secured, the group pulled him up, rushing to met him.

"Don't scare us like that!" Miyu cried, hugging him leg. Smiling, he reached down and patted her head.  
>"Sorry." He smiled sheepishly.<p>

"Do you know how bad we would have felt if you died right when we finally found you?" Totomaru demanded, shacking his shoulder's. "Do you have any idea?!" He shook him violently.

Laughing, Boyd dipped his head in apology. "I'll try to not repeat that in the future."  
>"You better not!"<p>

Behind Boyd Rufus stepped forward. In a quick, and very regal looking movement, Rufus lifted his hand and smacked Boyd hard on the back of the head.

"Ow." Boyd grabbed his head in pain.

"For being rash, and stupid." Rufus explained, glaring at his leader. "And…" he smacked him again. "For pushing me into a bush."

Frowning at the memory magic mage, Boyd pouted. "Sorry?"  
>"You should be."<p>

Smiling, Boyd stumbled a bit when Elle suddenly ran to him, wrapping her arms around his chest.  
>"Moron…" she mumbled, her voice low. "What the hell were you thinking?"<p>

Surprise, Boyd felt his gaze soften. Lifting his hands he hugged her back.

"…Sorry." He mumbled into her shoulder.

"They liiiike each other." Miyu whispered to Lucy, who chuckle.

When they pulled away, they flinched at the looks their fellow 'game' members were giving them.

"Well, well, well." Sasha's placed his hand on his hips at the sight.

"Boyd you sly dog." Totomaru grinned evilly.

"Aww." Juvia and Hinagiku squealed at the sight.

Feeling himself turn red, Boyd stepped away, rubbing the back of his head.

"Aww! Did we miss the party?! That is so unfair!" A voice called from the forest, making the group jump.

Turning back to the forest, four more of their missing members stood before them.  
>"Mamoru-chan!" Juvia smiled.<p>

Mamoru grinned, holding up a piece sign. "Hello ladies and Gents, you're missing 'game' members have arrived."

"Come off it Mamoru." Ace shook his head at her.

"Wha- how dare you." Mamoru reached out to flick his forehead. "I was totally having a cool moment there."

"Whatever, let's focus on the task at hand, hmm?" Ace scowled at her, shooing her hand away from his face.  
>"…Oh yeah!" Mamoru gasped, remembering something important. "We need help!" she cried out, she paused when she looked at Hikari. "Oh, see War Cry. It wasn't just our little group that got one of it's member's hurt. So we're not the lame heroes."<p>

"You have problems." Wary Cry growled at her.

"I've been told that many times before." Mamoru nodded thoughtfully.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean you need-" Boyd trailed off as he looked pass Mamoru to War Cry, who was carrying an un-moving Lyon on his shoulders.  
>"Lyon?" Hinagiku stepped forward. Not seeing any movement from her fellow guild mate, the snow mage ran forward. "Lyon! What happened?!" When she got close enough War Cry began to kneel towards the ground, gently laying Lyon on his back for everyone to see the damage.<p>

"We were attacked." War Cry mumbled grimly.

"Oh my gosh." Miyu murmured at the sight at the slightly gapping hole in Lyon's stomach. "Is it-"

"The blood makes it look worse than it actually is." Ace explained quickly.  
>"What were you attacked by?" Elle stepped forward.<br>"Some sort of weird zombie thing!" Mamoru shook her hands around wildly.

"A zombie?" Hikari frowned.  
>"This place just keeps getting better and better." Laxus grumbled to himself.<p>

Busying herself with Lyon, Hinagiku ripped off pieces of her dress to press against the wound, hoping to stop the bleeding.

"How long ago was he hurt?" Rufus looked to Ace.

"About 15 minutes ago. We were being chased by those freaks just before you guys set off those fireworks."

"Fire…works." Lyon giggled hysterically.

"He's loosing it." Cecile said bluntly.

"He is most likely going into hysteria. We need to give him some water and stop the bleeding." Hikari commanded from Laxus' shoulder.

"Lyon." Hinagiku leaned forward to cup his cheek. "It's is going to be okay."

"…Hi…nagi…ku." Lyon choked out the words, his eyes narrowing at the pain from his stomach. Taking his hand into her's, the snow mage nodded.  
>"I'm here Lyon."<p>

"Where is a Rain when you need her." Totomaru mumbled to himself.

"Speaking of Rain, we are still missing four people." Sasha announced.

"That's right. Where is Hibiki, Ruin, Yuuki and Rain?" Lucy asked worriedly.

"Running towards us at a good 20 mph speed." Mamoru announced.

Lucy looked to the parfume magic user, confused. "What?"  
>"Oh, Hibiki." Mamoru chuckled pointing pass them all. Following her finger, the group was shocked to see Ruin and Hibiki sprinting towards them.<p>

"This sight looks familiar." Hikari blinked

"Deja'vu." Elle agreed.

"Hopefully they don't have a Rhino chasing after them." Miyu said softly.

"Whoa what? There was a Rhino?" Ace glanced at the youngest mage.  
>"Yeah, it was chasing Elle, Boyd and Rufus." Miyu nodded.<br>"What the hell? When did all this happen?" War Cry growled.

"A few minutes before you arrived." Rufus answered calmly.

"Boyd fell off the cliff side." Totomaru smiled.

"Dude, what the hell?" Ace looked at Boyd in shock. Boyd shrugged innocently.

"That is so unfair." Mamoru pouted, folding her arms like a small child. "We miss all the fun."

"Would you all focus?" Lucy sighed

Not stopping until he reached them Hibiki stumbled the last few steps. Running was never his strong suit, but he had forced himself to run all the way here. Ruin was next to him, her breathing relatively normal.  
>"Hibiki! Ruin!" Boyd grinned, he paused at the look in their eyes.<p>

"First off… you're all morons…" Ruin seethed darkly, glaring at the group as if to try and pin point exactly who set off the fireworks.

Seeing her look Cecile looked away, whistling innocently.

"Secondly…" Hibiki breathed heavily. "We need… help."

"What? Why? What is going on?" Miyu blinked.

"Yeah, where is Yuuki and Rain?" War Cry grumbled.

At the sound of their names, Ruin and Hibiki glanced at each other.

"Rain she…" Hibiki trailed off, looking at the ground sadly. "It was my fault, I should have caught her."

"Hibiki, what are you talking about?" Lucy asked softly.

"What happened to Rain?' Miyu jumped upward, flapping her wings to fly in front of Hibiki's face. "What happened to Rain?" she repeated, worried for her fellow guild member.

Hibiki looked at his feet. "She fell… the ground collapsed."

The group gasped, horrified.

"Is she...?" Hinagiku could bare to finish the sentence.

"There is a chance she is still alive. However, it was a high fall and we were unable to find a way down." Ruin announced. "We came here seeking aid."

"Then what about Yuuki? Where is she? Was she with your group?" Sasha stepped forward.

"She was." Ruin frowned. "We knew if we all came searching for you all we would lose the location of the hole Rain fell in. So-"

"You left Yuuki behind?!" Ace screamed angrily. The guild was shocked at the news. How could they do that?!

Stepping forward, even Rufus, who was usually so calm, began to scream. "You left Yuuki there by herself? Without any magic or weapons to defend herself?!"

Hibiki flinched. They had every right to be mad. The instant they could no longer see Yuuki he regretted not staying. He knew it was stupid to leave her there, but what other choice did they have?

Rufus stepped forward, grabbing Hibiki by the color of his shirt, yanking him forward. "Answer me!" he seethed. Hibiki stared at Rufus desperately.

Rufus out of all of them must have been most worried. Yuuki was apart of his guild after all.

"Rufus, enough." Ruin stepped between them. "It was Yuuki's choice. There was no other way."

Glaring at her, Rufus opened his mouth to speak, but must have thought better of it. Turning away, he pushed pass the others to stand off to the side, trying to calm himself.

Taking a deep breath, Cecile spoke up, her voice even. "Do you know which way you came from?"

"Yes." They both nodded.

"Then what are we waiting for? Lets get going!" War Cry growled.

"Wait, we can't act rashly on this." Hikari commanded.

"Rashly? How is this rashly? We're going to save our Nakama!" Ace snapped.

"Ace." Elle held out a hand to grab his arm. "Hikari is right."

"Running into this blindly will help no one. It will just get us killed." Boyd agreed, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Then what do we do? Sit on our butts and sing camp fire songs?" Totomaru narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, I know some great camp fire songs!" Mamoru smiled, lifting her hand up.

"Please stop talking." Totomaru sighed, shacking his head.

"Anyway." Laxus grumbled. "We have injured, all of us heading to Rain and Yuuki now wont do any good."

"I could stay here with Lyon. I don't think he should be moved right now." Hinagiku suggested from her spot by Lyon's side.

"Perhaps we should split into groups?" Juvia suggested.

"Like what? The injured stay here, while the fit go get Rain and Yuuki?" Sasha scoffed. "They may not have yet, but there is no gurantee that no monster's will come this way looking for whoever set of those fireworks."

The group froze, looking at Sasha with wide eyes. _That's right._ _The monsters._

"We all need to calm down and think with clear minds." Ruin said, glaring towards the woods.

-000-**_Yuuki_**-000-

Slowly creeping back towards the hole Rain had fell threw, Yuuki crouched towards a few trees, watching carefully for any sign of movement.

She had to admit, when the fireworks had first appeared, she had suddenly felt courage coursing threw her. She had convinced Ruin and Hibiki to leave and go to the others for help.

However, now that the fireworks had left and she was alone, she felt cold.

She was out here alone with who knows what else. Anything could jump out and attack her at any moment.

Gulping, she brought her hands together nervously, feeling her fingers shake.

_Calm down Yuuki. Everything will be fine. Hibiki and the others will be here soon. _

At the sound of something moving, Yuuki tensed. Taking a deep breath, she slowly peeked around the tree towards the whole.

Surrounding the hole were… humans?!

There were at least 18 of them, all staring down at the hole in silence. Yuuki wanted to call out to them, to figure out who they were, but a cold feeling in her heart made her hesitate.

The 18 beings one by one began to jump down the hole without a word. When the final one was about to jump in, they paused to look around.

It was then Yuuki was able to see their face.

She had choppy dark orange hair with light skin plastered with freckles and a small scar on her chin from a past injury.

Yuuki covered her mouth as she moved up the girl's face to her eyes.

Her eyes were pure black.

**We've come to this time again everyone. **

**I need Oc's. **

**Before you start doing anything, let me tell you something. Even if you send one in I may or may not be able to use them. It depends on how the plot continues to progress and what sort of characters you send in. **

**First off, the characters you send in will be EVIL. The members of the '20 man game' will be fighting them. More will be explained in later chapters. At the moment I need at least three Oc's. **

**I need the name, age, magic type, and some weird insane twerk they have. (When I saw insane twerk I mean: They like to cackle evilly, calls everyone cupcake, talks about blood all the time, as an obsession over people's heart or dissection, creepy stuff like that)**

**Again, thank you! :D**


	14. Chapter 14

-000-**Rain**-000-

"…Emil?" Rain blinked, staring at the stranger, confused out of her mind. "What are you doing here?"

_"I could ask you the same question love_." Emil mused, pacing towards her. "_Not many come down here… and live._" He laughed, thoroughly amused by the situation. "_Do you have a death wish?"_

She shuddered at the sound of his voice. It echoed and sounded as if there was a second voice speaking with him. A deeper voice that dripped with the presence of evil

"…I fell." She announced slowly. "There ground collapsed and I fell."  
>Something about those words interested Emil. "<em>You fell?"<em> he smiled. "_That is weird. The ground has never given way before."_

"Well it did now." Rain mumbled more to herself than to her new acquaintance… if you could even call him that.

Emil reached up, scratching his head in thought. "_Well that is new, and I've been here a while, so I would know." _

"…Really now." Rain took a small step towards the right, glancing at the exit. That might just be her only way of escaping, and who knows what this guy intended.

_"Yeah." _He mused. After a few seconds of silence, he smiled at her. "_Perhaps though you should place that doll back down love_?" Emil motioned to the Lucy doll.

Feeling suddenly protective of the little doll, Rain held it close. "Why?" she inquired.

"_Because, you could damage it and hurt your friend in the process_." Emil mused.  
>Rain frowned, not sure what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"<p>

"_Well you see- Oh wait um…. You see the doll is like… Would you say voodoo_?" he frowned in contemplation. _"Oh here, I'll just show ya_." Reaching out before she could stop him, he grabbed the Lucy doll's _right leg_ and twisted it at an awful angle.

-000-**Main Group**-000-

"AHH!" Lucy screamed when a sharp pain shot through her _right leg. _Collapsing to the ground, she hunched forward to clutch her knee.

"Lucy?" Laxus stepped forward, quickly placing Hikari on the ground to kneel before his guild mate. "Lucy? What is it?." He said sternly, placing a hand on her shoulder to catch her attention. "Lucy!"

"Lucy? What's wrong? What is happening!?" Cecile demanded worriedly, at her other side.

"M-My leg." She stammered. When she looked down she could see no injury or bruising to reveal why she was in pain.

"Did you sprain it?" Elle asked.

"That's impossible. She wasn't even moving." Ace pointed out.

The group bickered amongst themselves for a few seconds before Lucy lifted her head, all pain in her eyes were gone. "…It stopped."  
>"What?" Hibiki frowned.<p>

"The pain is gone." Lucy looked to her knee in shock. Shacking it a bit to test it, she jumped to her feet. "The pain! It's completely gone!"

"What the hell?" War Cry grumbled.

"That was weird." Mamoru agreed with a nod.

Running a hand down her leg to see if anything had been moved out of place, she looked up at Laxus, who was staring at her with wide gray eyes.

"What just happened?" he asked, his voice low.  
>"…I don't know." She leaned against him, staring back at her leg with shaky fingers. "It felt like… my leg had just snapped in two."<p>

"Yet nothing is broken.' Hibiki announced after closer inspection.  
>"Well that is creepy." Totomaru scowled.<p>

-000**-Rain**-000-

Yanking back, taking the Lucy doll with her, Rain looked down at it worriedly. Moving the leg back into place, she glared at the man. "What did you just do?" she demanded.

"_I messed around with that girl's leg."_ Emil answered simply.

Rain felt that there was something more to that sentence and held the doll tightly.

Chuckling, Emil leaned casually against the wall. _"I like you love, you're funny_." He mused. "_And a cutie too."_

Rain growled at him slightly. This guy was like Hibiki… but not as nice and really creepy! "What is this doll? What are all those dolls?" Rain demanded, motioning to the other dolls that looked like her and all her friends.

"_They are Master's toys."_

"The Master? You mean… Teivel?"

_"Spot on love. Now hand over the doll_." Emil smirked calmly, holding out his hand. "_Do so, any I promise you wont get hurt… much_."

Taking a step back, Rain gasped when her back hit the wall. Looking back at Emil nervously, she bit her lip. "Never."

"_I really wouldn't suggest playing this game love." _

Rain moved away from him, prepared to run.

Chuckling he brought his hand to his mouth, as if he intended to call out to someone. _"Oh Death~!"_ he cooed.

Rain wanted to ask who he was calling to when suddenly something shot pass her. She screamed when something with feathers and claws attacked her, ripping the Lucy doll right out of her grip.

Collapsing to her knees, Rain winced at the large scratches and cuts that covered her arms. "W-What?" she stammered looking up to see the creature flying up towards one of the pillars above.

It was a red phoenix. It wasn't that big, but to see one here was shocking.

It circled the pillar before landing on something.

No… it was a man's shoulder.

When had he gotten there?

"_Death."_ Emil smiled, holding his arms out in a welcoming manner. "_Nice of you to join us."_

Jumping down into the light, the man rose to his feet. He was dressed from head to toe in a cloths made of phoenix feathers and had long red haired tied back in a short ponytail. The tips of the back of his hair were blood red and slightly spiked; matching the phoenix tattoo he had right below his eye.

Looking towards Rain, she shuddered to see his eyes were pure black, just as Emil's were.

The phoenix that rested on his shoulder's squawked at her, the Lucy's doll held tightly between it's talons.

_"Aww, what a good boy you are Phontix. Yes you are, yes you are_." Emil grinned, clapping a bit at the bird.

Was… he is talking to the phoenix? Okay, okay, this was getting weird… and nerve wracking! T-There was Emil, the flirting weirdo, and now this new guy.

Death? What a very… pleasing name. And that phoenix was name Phontix. Okay… okay, no. Rain had to get out there, fast.

The man, known as Death, lifted his hand to pet Phontix' head; taking the doll from it's talons. Lifting it up the Death cold eyes changed ever so slightly, as if he had realized something.

"…_IT"S SO CUTE_!" Death suddenly squealed.

Rain almost fell over. She hadn't expected this blank face man to suddenly squeal like that.

"_Oop, he switched again."_ Emil chuckled.  
>"W-What?" Rain stammered, not sure what was going on. She had to get out of here and find the others. But wait… who were these guys? Were they friends of Teivel's, or were they trapped in this game as well?!<p>

"_Oh, Deathy over there has split personalities_." Emil explained, suddenly sliding over to where Rain was standing to wrap an arm around her shoulder. Stiffening, she stared at him with wide eyes.

"_One side of him is cold and all serious, while the other one is all loud and loves cute things_." Emil explained.

"…I see." Rain glanced back at Death for a second before looking at Emil "And… why is he here?"  
>"<em>That is a good question. But you're the one who came onto our turf, so shouldn't you explain why you're here love<em>?"

"You're turf." Rain repeated, recalling back to how Emil had said those dolls were Teivel's 'toys'. "So then… you know Teivel?"

"Teivel?" Emil blinked frowning. The frown hadn't lasted long and quickly changed into a wide grin. "_You mean Master! Yeah of course we know him lov_e."" Emil patted her back playfully.

"_Master_?" Death lifted his head to look around like an excited puppy.

_"No, Master isn't here Death_."

Frowning, Death's eyes suddenly narrowed and he scowled at the doll.

"_Ah, he switched again_." Emi noted.

Rain stepped back, her head swirling with some many thoughts and emotions, it was hard for her to think straight.

_Oh gosh… everyone. Please… please be alright. I don't think I can… I can't do anything alone. _

Even if it was sad, it was the truth, and she knew it. She was weak without her friends. All she could do though was pray that everyone was alright and unharmed.

**-000-****_Everyone else_****-000-**

"You are sure you are okay?" Laxus placed his hand on Lucy's shoulder, staring down at her with an expression she had never seen before.

"F-Fine." She blushed nervously, looking towards her leg. "It was just… strange. The pain was there one second, then gone the next."

"It is strange indeed." Boyd agreed, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Maybe you should sit down." Juvia suggested softly. Lucy shook her head, narrowing her eyes.  
>"No, I am fine. We have to focus on finding Rain and Yukki." She insisted.<p>

The group stared at her, their eyes wide.

"…Very well." Ruin nodded. "We require a plan."

"Something that preferably doesn't involve all of us getting shishkebabbed." Sasha mumbled, folding his arms.

"I love shishkebab." Mamoru smiled dreamily.

"No one cares." Ace sighed, smacking his forehead.  
>"Oh well then." Mamoru huffed, looking away. "I hope you are the first to be shishkebabbed."<p>

"Guys, focus!" Cecile yelled towards them.

"Should we split up?" Hinagiku asked softly from her spot on the ground. Lyon was still resting against her lap, barely awake to understand what was going on within the group.

"Split up? Right after we just got back together? No thank you." Totomaru shuddered.

"I agree. I don't think splitting up would be wise." Hikari narrowed her eyes at the thought.

"Then what do you expect us to do? Just ditch Yuuki and Rain?" Warcry glared at her.

Hikari narrowed her eyes at him, her voice low. "No. However I don't think any of us getting more injured then we already are would exactly be the best rescue team for those two."

WarCry growled. "Then what do you suggest we do? You aren't in any position to be yelling at us, Ms. Broken ankle."

"Hikari is not the one to blame for this War Cry." Hibiki stepped between them.

Grumbling in frustration, WarCry turned away, folding his arms.

"Everyone please, we can't start fighting each other right now." Lucy begged. "Rain and Yuuki are depending on us, we can't let them down."

The group glanced at her, listening to her words intently.

"I know it is hard for you all, it is for me too. However, we can't lose sight of what is most important right now." Lucy narrowed her eyes, "Getting everyone off of this island alive."

WarCry lowered his head, nodding. "Sorry." He mumbled, glancing at Hikari, who nodded back.

"As am I."

Lucy smiled, nodding in approval.  
>"Well done Lucy." Boyd patted her back with a grin. The young celestial mage blushed a bit from the embarrassment.<br>"It was nothing." She mused softly.

"_I'd say so." _

The group froze, a chill running down their spines as they whirled around towards the forest.

A 17 year old girl, who none of them had ever seen before stood before them. She was leaning against one of the trees casually, holding up a Peace sign to them all. "_Hey there_." She paused, tilting the sunglass she was wearing down to her nose to get a closer look at the group. She whistled once. "_My, my, we got a fine bunch of gentlemen here_." She smirked, looking at the males of the group.  
>"Why thank you." A small sparkle appeared besides Hibiki's face as he adjusted his tie.<p>

Miyu reached out and pinched his elbow, making him jump to pout at her.

Ruin stepped forward slightly, shielding the group behind of her to glare at the new comer. "Who are you?"  
>The girl, who's eyes were pure black, chuckled. "<em>No need to get defensive." <em>The girl pushed herself off the tree to stuff her hands in her pocket and walk around the group in a large circle. Each member stared at her wearily, unsure of who she was, or what this girl wanted.

However all of them were thinking the same thing. Her voice… there was something terribly off about it. Though it sounded normal at first, there was a deeper undertone to it. As if two people were talking at once.

"Are you…" Hinagiku paused from her question. "Are you apart of the 20 man game as well?"

The girl laughed. "_Once." _

"What do you mean 'Once'?" Sasha questioned.

The girl paused, glancing at him. Now that she had stopped moving, the group could get a closer look at her. She had wavy black hair the was and had long bangs that were clipped to the right side of her face with a yellow hairclip.

"_Long ago, I was a member of the 20 man game. I no longer am." _She said simply.

"What do you mean by that?" Miyu frowned. "Did you finish the game?"

"_I won it." _The girl nodded.

"Then why are you still here?" Hikari demanded.

"_Because I chose to be. I am now loyal to Teivel." _The girl sighed dreamily. "_He is quite a catch you know. Especially in his true form."_

WarCry growled, unable to take this riddles any longer. "That's it! I'm sick of these games! Tell us who you are!"

The girl pouted at him. "_Well, are you a sour apple. If you must know though, my name is Masami Miyamoto." _She bowed a bit.

"Why are you here Masami." Laxus spoke up.

She smiled at him, looking him up and down. "_What a strong one you are. I like you." _Masami mused, completely ignoring Laxus' question.

Lucy frowned at this, looking up at Laxus to see his expression was unchanging, glaring at the new comer.

"_Since you asked so nicely though, I'll tell you. I'm here to change the game." _Masami announced.

"Change the game?" Lucy questioned.

Masami pointed to her. "_That's right ugly."_

Lucy reeled back, shocked to have been insulted.

"_You've all been such dirty little players and broke a few rules. Now Master Teivel has to change the game, so it is fair."_

_"_What is fair about any of this?!" Ace demanded.

"Yeah!" Mamoru agreed.

"_One shouldn't complain." _Masami shook her finger at him. "_The fun is just about to begin after all. I think I'll start with playing with those two." _She pointed to Laxus and Lucy. "_I don't like the way you two look at each other." _Masami admitted with a sigh.  
>"W-What?" Lucy stammered, confused.<p>

"_Oh don't worry though, you'll all get a play mate. They are coming right as we speak."_

The team exchanged worried looks, unsure as to what this Masami girl meant.

"What do you mean by that Masami?" Boyd stepped forward to ask the question of everyone's mind.

"_The others. My comrades, I suppose you could say." _Masami smirked wickedly.

**-0000Rain0000-**

_"Oh Master, is calling, I have to go_." He smiled. Looking back at Rain, he grabbed her hand. "_Till we meet again love_." He kissed it.

Blinking wildly at him, Rain yanked her hand away, confused. What was with this guy?

He kept calling Teivel 'Master' so that must mean that he isn't an ally. Yet, the way he kept smiling and talking to her, it made her wonder if he really was a bad guy.

"_Bye, bye. Remember Death, watch her and play nice_." He pointed to Death as he ran down the hall back the way Rain had come.

Staring after him, Rain let out a shaky breath.

What was going on?

Shacking her head, she bit her lip. "I have to get out of here and find the others." She thought to herself.

"_Useless."_

Rain jumped when Death spoke up. Looking to him, she frowned. "…What?"  
>"<em>To your team, you are useless<em>." He announced.

Insulted, she took a step back. "Excuse me?"  
><em>"You think so yourself. You are useless, you can not fight, and you can only heal them for so long<em>." Death announced.

Feeling a sharp sting in her heart, Rain took another step back. Death followed, moving towards her like a predator stalking its prey. He moved towards her, continuing his approach even after her back hit the wall.

What was this? The more he talked, the more painful her chest ached. It wasn't like she didn't know this already, but Death's words… they were physically causing her pain.

_"You couldn't even protect Lucy just now." _

Death's words made her choke out a sob of pain, her heart clenching tightly.

He… was right. She couldn't protect Lucy. Lucy… oh gosh Lucy.

Lifting her hands, Rain attempted to cover her ears. "S-Stop." She stammered.

"_Lucy will die first, because of you. Then the others. Perhaps, we shall leave that young one for last. Miyu was her name, yes? She is in your guild?" _Death nodded to himself absentmindedly. "_She will be the first."_

_"_N-No." Rain closed her eyes tightly, hearing Death's voice right next to her ear. Her mind began to burn, pain shooting through it like waves.

"_Miyu will die. She will die because you didn't protect her, even though you promised you would."_

"Stop it!" Rain screamed dropping to her knees to clutch her head. Death stared down at her, his expression wicked.

Death followed her decent, staring down at the shacking weather mage blankly.

"_You're friends will die because you are weak._"

"No!" Rain cried desperately, trying to cover her ears as best as she could.

Death opened his mouth to say more, but something caught his attention.

"_Death." _Someone suddenly grabbed his arm, making him stop. Looking up, Death frowned at a orange haired girl with a scar on her chin standing before him.

"_Ferris." _He growled a warning.

"_Don't 'Ferris' me." _The girl known as Ferris Mable, growled back, shoving him away from Rain. "_What do you think you're doing? Breaking Master Teivel's toys?"  
><em>Something in Death's eyes clicked and Ferris sighed to see that he had switched personalities again. "_But Ferris." _Death whined. "_She looks so cute when she is shacking!"_

Ferris smacked the top of his head, making him yelp. "_Go to the others you moron." _She ordered, pointing down the tunnel. "_Master Tievel has decided to change the game a bit. We're going out to have some fun."_

_"Fun?" _Death smirked.

Rain lifted her head ever so slightly, overhearing the conversation. The pain around her mind began to subside with each passing second. "Change the game?" she thought confused.

Grinning wickedly, Ferris nodded. "_Get going."_

Excited, Death motioned for his pet phoenix to head towards the exit and quickly followed.

When he was gone, Ferris looked towards Rain's collapsed form, slowly kneeling down next to her. "_Oy, girl." _she nudged her a bit.

Looking up at her, Rain blinked. "You… work for Teivel." She said slowly.

"_Master Teivel."_ Ferris corrected quickly. "_Yes, we do."_

Rain struggled to focus on the women in front of her, her mind recalling everything that has just occurred. "What was-"

"_Emotion magic." _Ferris announced. "_Death has the ability to use ones own feeling against them, to slowly kill them from the inside out." _

Rain shuddered, hugging herself close. "…Who are you people?"

"_I just answered that." _Ferris answered irritably. "_We are followers of Teivel. Just as one of you shall be soon."_ Reaching down Ferris took Rain's arm, helping her to her feet.

"What are you talking about?" As soon as she got to her feet Rain yanked away.

"_You're friends."_ Ferris answered with a sudden smile. "_When the rest of you are dead, the remaining one will be chosen by Master Teivel to join us."_

Taking a step back, the shocked Weather mage blinked. "You… what? When all of us die? How do you know that?" she shook her head, too confused to understand.

Ferris cackled. "_How do I know? I know for I was chosen by Master Teivel himself! I survived from my weakling friends and gained the great power Master Teivel granted me." _She looked towards the ceiling at the happy memory.

"You… You were apart of the 20 man game?" Rain asked breathlessly.

"_Once long ago, yes." _Ferris began to pace around Rain, circling her. "_That was over 30 years ago though. I'm sure a lot has changed since. I know I have." _

**_-0000 Yuuki000-_**

Yuuki's breath was heavy as she struggled to slide down the vine towards the cave below.

After a few minutes of though, she could no longer stand simply sitting around and doing nothing. So she took the risk of stepping out of her hiding spot, grabbing a long enough vine, attaching it to the trunk of the closest tree to the hole Rain fell through, and making her decent.

She knew how dangerous it was. The had seen those mysterious mages also venture down this hole, but that was all more the reason to push forward, right?

Rain was down here alone, without anyone to rely on. Rain always seemed to be so alone within this fight. She was the only mage within the group able to use medical magic, and therefore held the high responsibility.

That didn't mean the she should be the one to carry all the burden by herself! Rain has saved their lives countless times, now it was time for them to return the favor.

Reaching the end of the vine, Yuuki looked down to her relief to see the ground was close enough for her to jump to. Quickly letting go, she dropped down and gracefully landed on her feet, looking around for any sign of the mages she saw before.

The cave opening she was in was empty and the only other light source was coming from the tunnel in front of her.

Knowing Rain was no longer in this area, she narrowed her eyes and moved forward.

**Yay! I got a new chapter out! I'm so happy! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. **

**A special thanks to a few people!**

**The character Emil: My own personal character that I added to keep the plot moving XD**

**The character Death Wing belongs to: Stara-chi**

**The character Ferris Mable belongs to: kandy2431**

**and the character Masami Miyamoto belongs to: Cacamimi11**

**Thank you all for your characters! I hope they acted/ were described the way you wanted them too. I tried my best with all of them! :D I also thank those other people who sent me characters. Dont worry, I wont let your character go to waste! I promise to find uses for all of them. There are still at least 16 other evil mages out there that haven't been introduced yet :D **

**And, what is this? The story isn't even close to being over!? There is still a long way to go! **


	15. Chapter 15

**First new chapter of the new year! So excited! :D**

Laxus was getting sick of games. This whole thing was just one big game after all.

A game filled with even more games. Like mini games stuck in one giant arcade game. Laxus never really like arcades.

And by the looks of everyone beside him, they were starting to hate arcades too.

"You're comrades? You mean there are more of you Masami?" Hibiki inquired, deciding to ask what everyone else was thinking. Smiling brightly to him, Masami giggled.

"_Of course there are more of us. We've always been here, watching."_ She answered sweetly.

"Okay… creepy." Ace grumbled, narrowing his eyes. "Then were are these so called 'Comrades' of yours? What do you want from us?" he spoke up.

"_Your deaths."_

The air grew thick at Masami's answer.

"Why?" Juvia asked softly, not understanding.

"_It is our job."_

"A job Teivel gave you, no doubt." Hikari narrowed her eyes. "However you have not truly answered our main question. Why are you doing this? What have you to gain from it?"  
>Looking to her, Masami slowly frowned. "<em>Gain? Oh, I have nothing to gain from it." <em>A wicked smile pulled at her lips. "_I just find it fun." _As if on cue, another figure leapt out from the bushes, landing next to Masami. Glancing at the new arrival, she smiled. "_Oh, speak of the devil. One of my many comrades."_

Rising to their feet, the new comer slowly lifted their head.

"_Trying to take all the fun Masami?" _the new enemy, a women, inquired.

"_Of course not Nox." _Masami smiled sweetly at her companion known as Nox. "_I was just giving our little gamers a sneak peak of what was to come. You know, foreshadowing."_

_"Foreshadowing." _Nox's eyes' beamed. "_Foreshadowing is always wonderful in stories. Were you telling them a story? Can I hear it?"_

Masami chuckled. "_I wasn't telling them a story. I was just saying the inevitable."_

Ahead of these two talking girls, the members of the 20 Man Game narrowed their eyes, each of them growing rather annoyed to be talked about in third person.

"Hey!" War Cry growled. "Stop ignoring us."  
>Pausing, Nox and Masami looked towards him with similar looking expression. They smirked in unison, their sharpened teeth grinning wickedly.<p>

"_I apologize." _Masami faked a smile. "_Shall we start?" _When no one replied, she nodded. "_Very well." _Her eyes widened and she began to scream. "_LETS BEGIN!"_

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, tossing the mages from side to side. Not expecting the sudden movement, Lucy screamed when the ground began to crack and shot upwards, the rock cut in half by a large and powerful force.

"Lucy!" Laxus called, tackling her out of the way and towards the trees. Clinging to him, she screamed as the debris of the ground shot large amounts of dust into the air.

Closing her eyes defensively, Lucy felt themselves roll a bit into some bushes and away from the clearing. When the dust began to clear, the two blond mages jumped to their feet. Looking around, they frowned to find they had rolled quiet some distance/ slightly down a hill, away from their friends.

"What in the world was that?" Lucy gawked, looking back up the large hill they had tumble down, hoping their friends hadn't been caught in that large, and every sudden, earth quake.

"I'm not sure." Laxus narrowed his eyes. "Lets move."  
>"Right." Lucy took only a few steps forward, following Laxus' lead before a gust of wind hit them hard. Pausing from the sudden pressure, Lucy was surprised when someone landed in front of them, blocking their path.<p>

"_I found some blondes." _The person cooed.

It was Masami again. She must have seen them fall down the hill and followed.

_"Oh how lucky am I? I get the gorgeously handsome one." _Masami cooed in delight, staring Laxus up and down.

Lucy frowned at her words, not overly thrilled this girl kept trying to flirt with Laxus.

Not really affected by her words either, Laxus narrowed his eyes. "Step aside." He commanded, seeing that Masami was blocking their path up the hill

"_I can't do that handsome." _Masami chuckled. "_Regardless of how dashing you look, or how ugly your comrade is-" _she paused to motion to Lucy, who was thoroughly insulted, "_I can't let you pass."  
><em>Stepping forward, Laxus narrowed his eyes. "Then I'll just have to make you move."  
><em>"Ooh, how daring, I like that." <em>Masami smirked, ready for his attack.

-0000-**_ELLE AND CECILE_**_-0000-_

_"_I hate earthquakes." Cecile growled as she forced herself to her feet. Coughing a bit at the dust that covered the air, she looked around her surroundings. Feeling panic rising in her chest when she could not see any of her companions, she was relived when someone grumbled to her right.

Snapping her attention to them, she was glad to see Elle pulling herself up from under a few bits of debris. Shacking the dust out of her hair, she looked to Cecile in confusion.  
>"What just happened?" she questioned.<p>

"I'm not sure." Cecile answered honestly, helping her friend to their feet. "I think it was an earthquake. Probably Teivel's doing." Looking left to right, she frowned when she could not see her comrades through the thick fog like dust. It was like the dust was trying to separate them from their friends.

"We should find the others." Elle suggested.

"Good plan." Cecile agreed, sticking her hand out to swat away the closest dust. As soon as her hand passed through and cleared the area though, more came rushing in, making it impossible to navigate through the cloud.

"They wish to separate us." Elle narrowed her eyes at the sight. "Which means it wont be long before Teivel strikes." Suddenly Elle paused, her body going rigid.

Concerned at the sudden silence, Cecile looked to her friend. "Elle?" she inquired. When she didn't reply, Cecile started to reach out, but screamed when Elle suddenly dived towards her.

"Watch out!' Elle warned, tackling Cecile out of the way just as some sort of bird like creature flew over head, attempting to slash at Cecile's face and most likely blind her.

Hitting the ground hard, Cecile gawked at the bird. "What in the world-?!" she pushed Elle and her off of the ground to get in defensive stances. "Who is there?!" Cecile demanded as the bird disappeared into the dust. A few seconds passed before soft foots steps could be heard. It was approaching them, and getting closer.

Turning to the sounds, the two young mages narrowed their eyes when a young man dressed in phoenix-feathered clothing. On his shoulder, a large phoenix was perched on his shoulder. That was most likely the bird that had attacked them just now.

"_Not many notice Phontix." _The man said, reaching up to pet the bird. "_I suppose if you hadn't though, this game would have been quite boring."_

"Well, I've never been known to be boring." Cecile grumbled, sending Elle a thankful look. "Who are you?"  
>"<em>I suppose you can call me Death Wing. Though most here call me Death." <em>The man answered, he expression cold and blank.

"Death…" Cecile repeated. "It's simple, how nice."  
>"What do you want from us Death?" Elle inquired darkly.<p>

"_The same as all my comrades do." _Death turned his head away to pet his phoenix again. "_Your demise."_

_-0000__**Hinagiku, Sasha and Juvia**__0000-_

"Juvia does not like these games." Juvia whispered softly. "Juvia does not like them at all."  
>"Agreed." Hinagiku nodded, pressing her back to Sasha and Juvia's as they stared around the dust that encircled them. The dust completely surrounded them like a dome, trapping them inside.<p>

After the Earthquake, Hinagiku had almost plummeted down one of the cracks in the ground that had opened up, but was thankfully saved me Sasha and Juvia both took a hold of one of her arms and yanked her away.

Now though, they were stuck, unsure of which was to go or how to find their friends.

"Should we just pick a direction and try to escape the area of the dust?" Sasha suggested.

"What if we get lost and end up going in circles though?" Hinagiku asked softly, not really wishing to leave the open safety of the dome they were in. Granted it was odd how the dust seemed to touch every area around them yet the circle they were standing on, but Hinagiku was too freaked out to really notice.

"We can't just stay here either though." Juvia pointed out.

"_The water mage is right. Staying here would surely mean your demise." _A sudden voice cut through the silence. Jumping, the group turned around to watch Nox, one of Teivel's loyal servants, step out from the dust.

"Nox." Sasha narrowed his eyes. "Why are you here? Where are the others?" he demanded.

"_Oh I'm sure they are doing the same thing you are doing young mage." _Nox shrugged, circling the three. "_Struggling to survive and quickly approaching death. Oh but don't worry-" _She suddenly smiled. "_When I'm done with you I'm sure a great story will come out of it."_

"…Story?" Hinagiku asked softly.

"_Why of course. I love stories." _Nox nodded with a happy smile. "_You all wouldn't happen to know a good tale or two, would you? If you do I would love to hear them before I end your lives." _

_ -0000__**Ace, Mamoru, and Lyon**__0000-_

"Are you serious? We got lost from the group and now I'm stuck with you… AGAIN!?" Ace groaned, glancing at Mamoru as he swatted angrily at the dust that surrounded them. "And what is with this dust?!"

"Hey." Mamoru pouted at him. "Lyon is here too."

"Great, I got the moron _and _the dead weight." Ace rolled his eyes.

"Shut up… play boy…" Lyon grumbled from his spot on the ground.

"Lyon!" Mamoru smiled, approaching him. "You're alive." She patted it forehead.

"…Barely…" he mumbled in reply.

Mamoru beamed. "Don't worry Lyon. I don't think you are dead weight." She assured him.  
>"…Thanks?" his closed his eyes, narrowing his eyebrows in pain.<p>

Suddenly worried, Mamoru looked over the wound in Lyon's stomach. Though they were able to patch it up, with a few pieces of cloth, the look of it still gave Mamoru a bad feeling.

_What if it got infected? They had to find Rain, and quickly. _

"Stupid Dust." Ace grumbled behind her. Looking over her shoulder, Mamoru watched in silence as Ace swung wildly at the dust, trying to clear a path for him to see.

"It looks more like fog to me." Mamoru commented.

"Fog is like mist. This is dust." Ace corrected with an irritated sigh.

Frowning, hating how Ace had such a nasty attitude at the moment, Mamoru puffed out her cheeks. "Don't take your frustration out on me, ya big jerk." She mumbled, looking left and right to see if there was any sign of another being close to them. Seeing the small outline of tress not too far away, Mamoru rose to her feet when she thought she saw movement.

Squinting a bit, Mamoru reached out aimlessly for Ace.

"Ace." she grabbed his sleeve, making him pause.

"What?" he scowled.

Slowly pointing forward, Ace followed Mamoru's finger as she pointed to a tall tree. The tree looked relatively normal, except there was a young girl sitting on one of the branches.

Stepping in front of Mamoru and Lyon protectively, Ace called out.

"Who are you?" Ace hissed, his eyes narrowed dangerously.  
>The 14-year-old girl smiled at him. She had waste length raven-black hair, with dark black eyes. Her eyes were similar to every other follower of Teivel they had seen.<p>

"Creepy eye lady, state thy name!" Mamoru cupped her hands around her mouth to call out. Ace nudged her a bit, making her pout at him.

The girl chuckled, making them both shiver at the dark undertone it held. "_Me_?' she titled her head.

"Yeah. You." Ace frowned at the sound of her voice. It was just like the others.

Her smile never faltering, the women answered, "_Rilliane. Rilliane Kagurazaka."_

_"_What do you want from us?" Ace growled,

"_To drink your blood and steal your faces, what else?" _Rilliane

"But I love my face!" Mamoru gasped, cupping her cheeks.

'Mamoru… shut up." Ace sighed, pushing her back. "Adults are talking."  
>"Hey." She pouted at him.<p>

-0000** Miyu, Totomaru, and War Cry**0000-

"Why, out of everyone in our team, am I stuck with Dog Boy here?" Totomaru groaned as he jabbed a finger at War Cry.

Bearing his teeth at Totomaru, War cry folded his arms. "I'm not overly thrilled with this either."

"Both of you, knock it off." Miyu commanded, standing in front of them with her hands on her hips. Looking towards the youngest member of the Game, the two fell quiet.

"We have to concentrate so that we can find everyone as soon as possible." Miyu continued, pacing back and forth. "We need a plan."  
>The two older mages glanced at each other as Miyu talked. <em>Was it strange that Miyu, the youngest of both of them, was taking charge? <em>

"Any suggestions?" Miyu inquired.

"…We should probably get out of this dust." Totomaru began.

"All this dust is affecting my sense of smell. I can't locate where the others are, so I'm not sure if they are even in this dust like we are." War Cry added, sniffing the air, only to sneeze from the large amounts of dust.

Frowning, Miyu folded her arms. "So then-" she paused, her ears slightly twitching, as if she heard movement. Seeing her hesitation, Totomaru and War Cry narrowed their eyes, knowing that she most likely sensed another person near by.

Turning around, Miyu's eyes widened when a small figure dropped down in front of them.

It… was a young boy?

As the boy rose to his feet, he looked at them with blank and expressionless eyes.

_A follower of Teivel. _

They knew he was a follower of Teivel due to his black eyes but… this kid didn't look much older than 9.

Smirking at each other, Totomaru and War Cry shoved Miyu forward.

"Well hey, you got this covered, right Miyu?" Totomaru patted Miyu on the back encouragingly.

"Eh?" the younger mage gawked at him.

"Well I mean, it wouldn't be right with us older adults attacking a child. You are both close to the same age though, so it should be fine if you fight him." Totomaru explained.  
>"Agreed." War Cry nodded.<p>

Miyu stared at the two in shock. "You… You're both just lazy bums!" she accused

"What? We are not!' they gasped.

"Yes you are!" she jabbed a finger at them.

"Miyu, inside voices please. It is very rude." Totomaru smirked wickedly, nudging her forward.

Stunned, Miyu stumbled forward, sending a dark look over her shoulder at her friends. With a huff, she turned back around to look at the boy, who stood unmoving where he first landed.

Slowly stepping forward, Miyu narrowed her eyes at the child. _Why would they have sent a child? Or, a better question is, why is a child a follower of Teivel? _

_ Perhaps she should have said it before, but looks can be deceiving. Take Teivel for instance. This boy is most likely much more than he appears to be. _

"…Hello." Miyu stopped walking to hold her hand up to the boy in greetings. "I'm uh… I'm Miyu. Who are you?"

The boy slowly lifted his head to look at her, his voice soft. "_Hiro." _

Forcing herself to smile, feeling her stomach tightening for some reason, she continued on. "…Why are you here, Hiro?" she asked sweetly.

Titling his head at her, Hiro suddenly smiles. "_Onee-chan, you have pretty eyes_."

"Oh." Miyu blinked in surprise, not expecting the compliment. "…Thank you."

Giggling, Hiro covered his mouth. He continued to laugh, his sweet voice changing the longer his laugh went on until it was a loud and horrible cackling. "_Onee-Chan! I love your eyes!"_

"….Uh…T-Thank you." Miyu stammered, feeling rather disturbed at the child's maniacal laughter.

"_I want Nee-Chan's eyes! I want them!" _The boy insisted, his smile curling upward. "_I think I'll take them. And place them in a jar just for me!"_

"Whoa-" Totomaru stepped forward, placing a hand on Miyu's shoulder and gently pulling her back. "You are not having her eyes, kid."  
>"Yeah, it is creepy.' War Cry agreed, stepping protectively in front of the very disturbed Miyu.<p>

"_Then, can I take Onii-Chan's eyes? They are nice too._" Hiro bent his legs, tilting his head at them.

"No." War Cry said simply. "Now get lost."

_"Oh, Okay. I guess I will just have to take them then." _With that, Hiro lunged forward.

-0000**_Rufus, Body, Hibiki, Ruin, and Hikari_**_0000-_

"I'm really starting to get a lot of Déjà vu feelings here." Boyd sighed as he stared at his friends. Once again, he had been separated from the rest of his comrades into small groups.

"Join the club." Hikari grumbled, resting most of her weight on a near by boulder.

"Oh hey-" Boyd saw the small traces of pain in her eyes and recalled her broken foot. "Here, let me help you." Moving to her, Boyd helped Hikari sit on top of the medium sized boulder so that she could rest her leg/foot.

Nodding in gratitude, Hikari looked to Ruin.

"What is the plan Ruin?" Rufus inquired. Folding her arms, Ruin began considered the many options shooting through her brain.

"Finding the others is a top priority." Hibiki nodded. "We must be quick though if we wish to find Rain and Yuuki soon."  
>"We can't forget those… followers of Teivel though." Boyd reminded everyone. "Though there were only two of them just then, Masami did say that more were on the way."<br>"She also said there would be a _Play Mate _for each of use." Rufus nodded, rubbing his chin.

"That is not at all unnerving." Hikari grumbled, reaching up to rub her temple.

Knowing how she felt, the group once again turned to their leader, Ruin, who had yet to say a word. A few seconds passed before Ruin acted.

Closing her eyes, the young Shadow mage lowered her head towards the ground, as if she were meditating.

A dark, and disturbing feeling began to fill the air as they waited anxiously for Ruin's decision. When she did not speak, the group frowned with worry.

"Ruin what are you-?" Boyd began to question.  
>"Wait." Hikari held up her hand to stop him from saying any more. "Don't disturb her."<p>

"What ever for?" Hibiki blinked at her.

"…She knows they are coming." Hikari narrowed her eyes.

"Who?" Boyd frowned.

"The people who are attacking us… another one is approaching." Hikari turned her head slightly, as if she heard something.

"Approaching?" Hibiki gawked at her, getting into a defensive position.

An eerie silence fell on them. No one moved, and Hibiki hadn't even realized he had started to hold his breath. That is until something moved to their right.

The group jumped when a man suddenly appeared in front of Ruin, when he had not been there only seconds before.

Opening her eyes, Ruin lifted her head calmly to meet the man's gaze.

"_Salutations." _He greeted in that dark voice all the followers of Teivel seemed to have. "_My name is Yuudai Negi, a pleasure to met you." _The man announced. He had red hair with black streaks shooting down his skull that matched the fairness of his skin. His ears were pointed up war, and twitched slightly when he smiled.

"Ruin." Ruin greeted back, her voice low.

"_I must say… I am very surprised you sensed my presence." _He suddenly licked his lips, revealing a long tongue that seemed to slither back into his mouth. "_Not many can do that."_

"Maybe you were just noisy." Ruin countered, watching him closely as he began to circle her. Behind her, Ruin's friends wanted to rush forward to get Ruin away from the new, and unwanted guest, but froze, not knowing what this man wanted.

_"Oh? I was noisy, was I? How strange."_ He licked his lips again. "_Oh what fun this shall be. I must admit, I am very pleased to have found this little group." _He paused to stand in front of Ruin, looking her over. "_I've heard of you. The leader to the Game. I hear you are quite strong."  
><em>"Oh, and who told you that?" Ruin lifted and eye brow.

"_A little birdie told me." _Yuudai smirked. "_Oh but, that doesn't matter." _He paused. "_Shall we begin?"  
><em>"If we must." When the last word left her lips, Ruin ducked down, barely missing Yuudai's fist when he struck at her.

"Ruin!" her friends gasped, rushing to help.

-0000**Rain and Ferris**0000-

"30 years ago?!" Rain gasped. "That is impossible! You don't look much older than 20!"

"_Oh what a smart little mage you are." _Ferris mused as she circled Rain, who remained still. "_But it is true. I have been on this island for over 30 years. About to reach my 31__st__ year."_

"How is that possible?" Rain asked softly.

"_Simple. When I began a follower of Teivel he granted me eternal life." _Ferris suddenly stepped behind one of the columns, disappearing.

Shocked, Rain stepped back, looking around wildly for wherever Ferris had vanished too. "_You must think you're so clever, don't you?"_

Ferris' voice echoed in the room, almost making it shake.

"N-No." Rain stammered softly. "I just… don't understand. How can you follow someone like Teivel?! Weren't you forced to compete in these games as well?!" she called out into the room.

"_Yes, I was." _Ferris answered, her voice suddenly going soft. "_I competed in this game with 18 other mages and my fellow guild member." _

"Then… Why?!" Rain screamed, feeling frustrated. "If you know the pain of losing all your friends, then why are you doing this?!"

"_Because I wish too." _Ferris suddenly cackled. "_I never cared for those 19 losers! They only held me back from my true potential. Teivel though, he gave me the opportunity to see things the right way. To live forever and better my magic for all eternity."_

"…To live forever?" Rain frowned, turning around, circling the room in search of Ferris. "That-"  
>"<em>Sounds pleasing, doesn't it? Wouldn't you like to like forever Rain? To have endless power and never feel weak ever again."<em>

Rain paused, her eyes growing wide. "No… I've never-"  
><em>"You're a liar Rain. We've been watching you. Admit it. You never really cared about your friends. They have only ever held you back."<br>"_No!" Rain snapped. "…You're wrong."

_"Am I though Rain? Am I really?"  
><em>Feeling her body shiver, Rain covered her ears, no longer wishing to ear Ferris' speak.

_She was scared. She wanted to find her friends. Were they even looking for her? _

_…She hoped so. _

**_Poor Rain. Sorry there wasn't any mention of Yuuki in this chapter. Don't worry, she is fine right now. And she will definitely re-appear in teh next chapter, as well as kicking some butt and taking names. _**

**_Though, since it is Yuuki, I doubt she would be taking some names XD she is too sweet for that. _**

**_I want to thank everyone who sent in their OC characters!  
>To start of, NOX belongs to the Author Wanderingidealism<em>**

**_Yuudai Negi belongs to Otakubukai_**

**_Hiro belongs to EmeraldStar642_**

**_Rilliane belongs to ChocoChipzCookie_**

**_YUP! That is all so far! And there are still many more to come so thank you all so much for you support! You all helped me and supported me through a really tough point in my life not to long ago, and I am still really grateful for that!_**

**_THANK YOU!_**


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